Together We Could Change the World
by SkylerSylin
Summary: What if Hinata had the courage to tell Naruto her feelings before he left for his training? What would have been different about their lives? Would it have changed anything at all? Read on to find out! UPDATE: Story is on back shelf until further notice.
1. Chapter 1

**What if Hinata had the courage to tell Naruto her feelings before he left for his training? What would have been different about their lives? Would it have changed anything at all? Read on to find out! I do not own Naruto or any other characters but I will enjoy making them dance to my own tune. I'm using the time frame but twisting the entire story line to suit my own designs so nothing here will play out exactly like the manga/anime. Might be some similarities in the first chapter but will be a lot different! Characters may be slightly OOC but this is AU of sorts so deal with it! :)**

"You want me to do what now Pervy Sage?" Naruto looked toward the window from his hospital bed.

"I want you to come with me and train Naruto. Get stronger so u can face strong Shinobi without having to have back up or ending up in the hospital for days on end afterwards. But most importantly, so I can teach you awesome new jutsu!" Jiraiya smirked while sitting on the window sill.

"Really Pervy Sage!? You mean your going to actually teach me jutsu and not just some perverted tricks for once!?" Naruto actually jumped out of the hospital bed dancing.

"Whoa whoa whoa! They aren't just perverted tricks! They are the ultimate form of female investigation!"

"It's just perverted! Your nothing more than one huge pervert!"

"Just one huge pervert!? Naruto I'll have you know, I'm the ultimate super pervert! The legendary master Jiraiya!"

"Ya sure, whatever you say Pervy Sage.."

"It seems like I'm going to have my work cut out for me to turn you into a first rate Shinobi.."

"Doubt all you want Pervy Sage, but I'll be the greatest student you ever had, believe it!"

"Good, good. Now meet me at the front gate first thing in the morning. Bring supplies to be gone for a few years, and your training will start as soon as we leave. I hope your ready for this Naruto, because it's not going to be easy."

"Hey I'm going to be Hokage someday Pervy Sage. If I can't handle a little training then I don't deserve it. Plus... I have to bring Sasuke back to the village, I promised Sakura that I would. And I never go back on my word, because that's my ninja way, believe it!"

"Haha alright then! I'll leave you to rest for now. Front gate, first thing in the morning Naruto. Later!" Jiraiya made a quick hand sign and vanished in a puff of smoke.

Naruto climbed back into the bed and leaned back. He couldn't believe it! Pervy Sage was actually going to train him for once. He was excited beyond words but knew that right now he just needed to rest and relax. It wouldn't do if some of his friends stopped by to see him and he was all worked up.

He was going to have to be careful, to leave the village in the morning without a word to anyone was going to be hard. But he knew it had to be done. Closing his eyes he decided taking a short nap might help matters.

Hinata Hyuga was trying to enjoy the beautiful day outside. The weather was perfect; not too hot, not too cold, with a light breeze; and she had found a nice bench at the park to sit on. She just couldn't focus on anything else right now. Naruto and the others had made it back, with injuries. The mission a complete failure. Most everyone had sustained severe damage and Naruto was devastated emotionally along with the physical tear on him.

She briefly contemplated going to the hospital to cheer him up, but no, that wouldn't work. She could barely talk to him! What would she say? Hi, I'm sorry you failed. But it's okay I believe in you!

Even in her head that sounded dumb. She could just hug him and tell him it would be okay couldn't she?

Blushing bright red at these thoughts she buried her head in her hands. Oh no no no I couldn't do that!

"Hey Hinata! What you doing sitting here all alone?"

Letting out a small squeak the Hyuga heiress looked up to see Tenten walking up the path toward her.

"Oh hi Tenten. I was just out thinking a little."

"Oh okay. I'm enjoying the weather and trying to get away from the gloomy mood that's around lately."

She sat down next to Hinata and leaned back against the bench.

"Y..yeah.. It is nice weather today!"

"I'll say! Almost good enough to go for a swim but that's too much effort."

"Yeah it would be.."

Tenten glanced sideways at the girl next to her. Noticing her red face she could guess instantly what had been at the front of her mind. Oh Hinata..

"Hey Hinata. You should go see Naruto. I bet he could use some cheering up and your always in a good mood."

Hinata turned even redder "I..I..I.. I couldn't! I wouldn't know what to say. An.. And.. Naruto-kun might just want to be left alone right now, and I wouldn't want to disturb him."

Tenten could almost hear the heartbreak in her voice at that last part.

"Hinata... I think it would be good for you both."

"What do you mean for us both?"

"Well. Naruto obviously could use a friend right now. We all heard what he told Sakura. And then he came up short. He has got to be hurting. I know you love him Hinata, so now is your chance. If you comfort him he will remember it!"

"I..I guess.." Hinata blush started to fade a little and Tenten could tell the gears where turning something fierce inside her head.

"Maybe you can even tell him you love him!" She smirked and looked away off into the distance before she heard a dull thump. Turning back to Hinata she saw the young girl sideways on the grass, having promptly fainted at the thought of confessing to her crush.

"Oh man, just the thought!? Come on Hinata!"

After finally managing to wake her up and get her sitting back on the bench properly Tenten decided to open up the conversation again.

"So like I was saying, you should go cheer him up. But seriously no fainting. I've seen you fight Hinata. Your strong. You just have to show off a little of the backbone you did against Neji in the chunin exams and you will be fine."

Silence stretched for awhile and she carefully watched the young Hyuga. Her blush returned, then faded. Her eyes had initially widened as the thoughts of confessing came rushing back but now they where slightly narrowed in intense thought.

"You think I'm strong Tenten?"

"Well yea! You stood up to Neji back then, which is something even Lee has issues doing. I even heard Naruto telling Kiba later that it was impressive."

"Naruto-kun was impressed?" Hinata whispered softly.

"Yea he was! Come on Hinata, go cheer him up. I'm sure you can handle it."

Tenten carefully watched the girl as she nervously tapped her fingers together staring off in the direction of the hospital. After a few moments of this Hinata closed her eyes and with a sigh, stood up and turned towards Tenten.

"Thank you for your kind words. There is something I have to do now. Bye Tenten."

Bowing slightly she turned and ran off. Tenten smiled after the young heiress and waved. "Be brave Hinata." Standing up she walked off in the other direction, away from the hospital.

Naruto was just waking up from a short nap and decided to get up and stretch. Ridding himself of the bandages covering him, the kyuubi inside having healed him long ago, he set about doing some push ups in the middle of the floor. He hadn't been at it long before he heard a knock at the door.

"Come in!" He flipped himself upright and stood at the end of the bed waiting to see who it could be. He was surprised to see a slightly blushing Hinata open the door and walk in.

"Oh hey Hinata. Didn't expect you here. Where's Kiba and Shino?"

Taking a deep breath to calm her nerves Hinata managed to answer, "I..I came without them. I hoped maybe I could cheer you up some Naruto-kun. Give you someone to talk to if you want."

"I appreciate it Hinata. Nobody has really came to see me since I've been stuck in here. It's nice to see a friend!"

"D..d..don't mention it Naruto-kun."

Despite the words she watched the glum expression that crossed his face. Steeling her nerves she walked a bit closer to him.

"Say Naruto-kun... You don't look like your hurt that badly. I was worried when I heard about everything."

His goofy grin appeared and he scratched the back of his head.

"Yeah well I've always healed fast you know! Nothing can keep me down for long. I've still got to become Hokage someday so I'm not going to let anything do me in that easy, believe it!"

The young girl giggled before covering her mouth with her hand and blushing.

"Hey Hinata! Did u just laugh? You shouldn't hide it, it's kind of cute sounding." Naruto scratched the back of his head as his old goofy grin returned and Hinata's heart came screeching to a halt.

Naruto-kun just said my laugh was cute. Me. Cute. Naruto. Cute. Laugh. Cute. What?.. OH! She closed her eyes as her entire world started to spin and she swayed slightly sucking in a sharp breath before somehow, and quite impressively for the young girl, managed to remain upright and for the first time in her life NOT faint in front of her crush.

Stuttering almost incoherently she managed to reply, "Th..th..thank y..you N..Nar...Naruto-kun!"

"Hey don't mention it! Your always so nice to me, least I can do is say something nice back. Besides, your laugh really is cute!"

Turning an ever darker shade of red, Hinata watched him for a moment before her courage finally slipped. With a small sigh she fainted, pitching forward towards Naruto who managed to catch her before she hit the floor.

"Hinata! Are you okay!?"

Naruto's face quickly changed from grinning to worried in a second flat. Oh man oh man is she okay!? "Hinata! Answer me!" He checked her pulse and finding it was surprised that it seemed fine, a bit fast perhaps, but fine. As far as he could tell, apart from her red face she looked perfectly fine to him. Sure she was stuttering but that was normal.

He gently carried her to the bed he had recently been confined too and gently laid her down on it. Now that he thought more about it, she often fainted around him. Maybe this was just part of who she was. Frowning slightly at this thought he groaned. I wish she wouldn't faint! She's kind of fun to talk to and be around. She's shy but she's really sweet, way sweeter than Sakura! And she doesn't have a huge crush on Sasuke, which is a huge bonus!

Thinking a bit more Naruto actually had a decent moment of clarity for once in his life. Whoever she does like is pretty lucky. She's strong and kind. If she ever gets over this fainting thing she would be something else.

His stomach growled a bit and he decided to go sneak off and get a bite to eat. Remembering Hinata was still here he decided leaving her alone wasn't the best choice so he sent a clone to go grab them both something while he settled in the chair by the bed. Yawning a bit Naruto decided to close his eyes for just a moments rest, after all, he was still a bit tired. It didn't take long for the young blonde to pass out, his clone vanishing half way back to the hospital dropping the food it carried with Hinata blissfully unaware of the entire situation.

 **A/N: So I wrote this up with idea to make it short.. And I'm up to like 4 chapters worth already.. So.. Yeah.. Gonna be a few chapters total at the very least with possible finishing if enough people like it! Read on and review! :)**


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: Hi! Since I got a fair few favorites and follows rather quickly (a lot faster and more than I expected!), I decided to go ahead and give you all chapter two so your not sitting on a cliffhanger of sorts for a week! As I said I've written about 4 chapters worth already so I'm prolly gonna get those editted and posted here soon. That's all for now, hope you enjoy! Sky out! o/**

It was late when Naruto awoke again. Hinata was still laying on the bed as peaceful as could be. Crap, he thought, I fell asleep and the clone vanished before it could get us any food. Oh well, bet something will be around sooner or later. Getting up he stretched and walked over to the window and looked out before allowing his thoughts to wonder back to the young girl laying nearby.

Thinking back to the chunin exams, when she had fought Neji, he had only ever seen her as a shy, quiet girl who displayed next to no strength. But against Neji, when everything seemed down and he just couldn't stand watching the jerk belittle her, something clicked in him. So he had shouted that she could do it, and the change that came over her was obvious to everyone. The weak girl was gone, and in her place stood someone ready to give every thing she had to defeat her cousin, all because he said she could do it. She really was strong, in her own way. If she kept trying there was no reason she couldn't become even stronger.

I hope she's a lot stronger when I get back from training with Pervy Sage. I bet if I asked she would spar with me. Would be lots of fun I think. Sitting down on the end of the bed away from the girl he stared back out the window, allowing thoughts of all his friends to come to the front of his brain.

He hadn't had them very long, but they really where his friends, he had found that out. They trusted him with their lives, and he trusted them. It was going to suck having to leave all of them behind, but he had to get stronger. To protect not only himself but to protect them from the people that wanted to capture the nine tails inside his body. He just had to do it.

Looking away from the window his gaze fell upon Hinata, laying on the small hospital bed. Looking at her now she seemed so peaceful, unlike her typical nervous self, she seemed calm and serene when she was unconscious. Almost as if all her fears where gone and a weight was lifted from her. Naruto didn't seem it, but he was quite perceptive to people's hidden emotions. Having hidden his own nearly all his life, he could see the signs of someone struggling with their own demons.

He knew all about the burden of carrying a weight that you couldn't share with anyone. He saw it in her eyes, he knew she carried a burden she wished she could cast aside but was incapable of doing. It made him protective. It made him want to shoulder the burden for her, to carry it so her delicate frame didn't have to struggle with it any longer.

The blonde smiled a bit. If I could help I would. But u couldn't save Sasuke from himself.. How am I suppose to shoulder someone's burden from them if I can't even save my best friend? Gritting his teeth he clenched the bed sheets and looked towards the floor, the memory of his failure bringing tears to his eyes.

Damnit Sasuke! Why did u have to go and leave!? Why couldn't u stay!? You where my best friend! Why?.. Sobbing he tried to wipe the tears away and collect his thoughts.

"N..Naruto-kun?.. Are you okay?"

The soft voice to his left made him jerk his head around to see Hinata awake and sitting up, an expression of worry plastered across her face. Seeing this he tired to smile but only managed a slight twitch of his lips before responding.

"I'm fine Hinata-chan, nothing to worry about. I'll be fine, believe it."

Despite these words leaving his mouth he knew they weren't true. He could feel the pain welling up inside him, and he wished nothing more than to run away. She didn't need to see him like this. Better to leave so she couldn't see his weakness. Standing up he turned away and took two steps towards the open window before he felt something soft and warm crash into his back and slim, yet strong arms wrap around his waist.

"Don't go Naruto-kun! It's okay to cry, but I'll be here for you. I promise."

Stunned, he just stood there for a few moments thinking about what was happening. She knows I'm crying, but she doesn't see it as weakness? She still wants to be around me like this? He couldn't believe that someone would actually go to such lengths just to comfort him. It had been, well it had been never that someone had held him while he cried. The feel of the young girls arms around him touched him to the core.

A place in his heart he had never before known existed was flooded with emotions he didn't truly understand. And this lead to him doing something he never before considered. Naruto let go of his pain and fell to his knees on the floor,with Hinata still clinging to him, and he wept uncontrollably.

"I failed Hinata-chan. I told Sakura that I would bring Sasuke back for her. But I failed. I failed to uphold my ninja way, I broke my word."

Hinata tightened her arms around him, "You haven't broken your word Naruto-kun. Your ninja ways is to never give up, never break a promise right? So don't give up! Keep trying until you bring Sasuke back to the village for Sakura. I know you can do it. Unlike me, your strong and brave. You can do anything Naruto-kun. You made me stronger just by believing in me, so I'll believe in you."

Naruto was stunned into silence, his tears stopped flowing and his eyes widened as his brain worked to process what he just heard. She was right. It was his ninja way to never give up, sure he had failed this one time. But he had failed plenty of times before, did it ever stop him? No and it wasn't about to stop him now! Pervy Sage said he was going to train him, and here Hinata was saying that she believed in him as well! Iruka-sensei, Pervy Sage, Granny Tsunade, and now Hinata.. They all had said they believed in him at some point. He had people that cared about him, and it truly made him happy.

"Thank you Hinata-chan.. Thank you for believing in me... Your strong too you know? I'm glad you came here today. I'll never be able to repay you for this, but I hope someday I can help you out."

"You already have Naruto-kun. Every day I see you trying your hardest, trying despite failing and never giving up, and it makes me try harder. Because someday I'll catch up to you, and be as strong as you are. So I can walk beside you with my head held high and be proud of who I am. And for you to look at me and smile. You have helped me more than I could ever repay you. My own ninja way is to never give up, or go back on my word because of you. I'll never stop believing in you, and I'll never let you give up on your dreams or give up on my own dreams."

Silence stretched for a seemingly endless amount of time after she spoke these words. It slowly entered her brain at the words that had just left her mouth, and her eyes widened in stunned surprise at her boldness.

The young blonde was similarly affected by her words. It stuck him to the core. Her ninja way was the same as his, because she wanted to walk beside him? He couldn't wrap his head around the emotions swirling around inside him. Looking back over everything that had happened since before the chunin exams, he started to notice a pattern. Hinata was always there, no matter what, she cheered him on. She supported him. By giving him medicine after beating Kiba, her own teammate. With a smile in his direction when he just looked for anyone to notice him. And here now, when his other friends were staying away, she came to comfort him.

He realized, out of all the friends he had, Hinata was the most caring. Somehow, she cared a great deal for him, that was obvious to even him. The depth of those feelings he had no clue about, but in his heart, he was desperate to find out just how far they went.

As that thought struck him his brain brought him back to his current situation. Kneeing on the floor of his little hospital room, with Hinata clinging to him with her face buried in his back. She had gone silent, but her grip on him had only tightened.

"Hinata-chan?.."

"Yes?.." The young girl barely managed to whisper.

"Your ninja way is the same as mine? You want to walk beside me?"

The young girl blushed and tightened her grip on the boy she clung to even tighter. She had already said too much, she knew where this was headed, and it scared her to death. Steeling her nerves she called upon whatever courage she had and decided to press on, and leave nothing unspoken.

"Yes. Naruto-kun, I've always watched you. Ever since the Academy. I saw how strong you where, and how you never gave up. It made me admire you, and want to be just like you. I modeled my own ninja way after you, so that I could be more like you. Strong and kind. Somewhere along the way, I'm not quite sure where, but I.. I.." Her voice trailed off into a choked whisper.

"Hinata-chan?.." Naruto's voice was barely audible. Even he was grasping what was going on here. Hinata took a deep breath and steeled her nerves one last time before speaking loudly and clearly.

"I love you Naruto-kun."

Naruto was stunned. She loves me!? He couldn't think straight. His thoughts where a compete and utter mess. Stars flashed through his brain and he felt like he was battling a thousand foes at once that he couldn't even see. Emotions swirled around inside him, doing nothing to quite the storm raging inside. She loves me?.. But I love Sakura, how do I.. Wait. I do love Sakura right? Now that he thought about it, he was sure he did, only... He wasn't sure he loved her the way that Hinata was saying she loved him right now.

He wanted to protect her. Wanted to make her happy. But he knew her heart belonged to Sasuke. It puzzled him then... He knew she knew how he felt, but even with that knowledge she never looked twice at him. She always would chase Sasuke, and always over look the blonde in front of her. But Hinata.. She was sweet, strong, caring, extremely brave, and warm. Oh how so warm! Her arms around him had such s comforting affect it was almost addicting.

She was there for him, Sakura wasn't anywhere to be found. She was actually mad he failed and had yelled at him for being a failure. And here was Hinata, trying to mend him emotionally. As he thought more about the girl behind him, he stated to smile. Naruto knew then, what exactly he felt. In this room, here on the floor after crying his eyes out, he had fallen in love with the young Hyuga girl.

"Hinata-chan.. If you had said this a few days ago, I wouldn't have known what to say. But I'm glad you said it now. Because I know now what I didn't before."

The young heiress's eyes widened, hoping beyond all hopes that he was gong to say what she had dreamed he would say. And then..

"I love you too Hinata-chan."

Gently turning himself around to face her, he wrapped his arms round her and held her head to his chest. He felt her relax instantly and heard the laughter. Puzzled he pulled back a bit to see her beaming face looking up at him, tears running down her face.

"I didn't mean to make you cry Hinata-chan! I'm so sorry!"

"Don't be sorry Naruto-kun. I'm so happy! I never thought I would hear you say those words and now that I have, I can say without a doubt I'm the happiest girl alive." She giggled and buried her face into his chest attempting to pull herself closer to him.

Laughing with her, he pulled her closer and rested his cheek on her head. "As long as your happy."

"I am! Very happy!"

"I'm glad you are." It dawned on him however, that he was suppose to be leaving tomorrow morning. After this moment, he really didn't think he could do it.. Unless...

"Hinata-chan... Can i ask you something though?"

"Of course, what is it Naruto-kun?"

"If I was to leave the village, to go train, would you come with me?"

Hinata's eyes widened. She hadn't expected this kind of question. And really not this soon. But here was the boy of her dreams, with his arms around her, asking if she would leave somewhere with him. Of course he was joking but the thought warmed her heart.

"Yes. I would. Now I have you, I couldn't bear losing you. So of course I'd go with you." Looking up she saw the smile that instantly appeared on his face.

"I'm glad. Because Pervy Sage asked me to go train with him. And I don't want to lose you either. So I want you to come with me!"

She looked up at him and her eyes widened even further. She had expected this to be a hypothetical question, not an actual offer!

"Naruto-kun?.. You really are leaving and want me to go with you?"

The blonde nodded "Yeah! If we both talked to Pervy Sage and explain the situation I'm sure he will understand an let you come with us. Having someone near my own age to train with will be a huge help as well! We can both get stronger together, and this way we never have to be apart."

Put like that Hinata had to agree that it made sense. If Naruto's sensei would actually allow this to happen. And her father. Her father would be furious. She would just have to leave without out right telling him, she would write a letter.

"Okay. That sounds good to me. If I'm leaving with you though, I'll have to go get packed. I don't have anything. When are you going anyways?"

"We leave first thing in the morning."

She frowned slightly. So soon?

"Is that a bad thing? Maybe I can talk him into waiting a day or two. I can fake like I'm still hurt and he won't suspect a thing."

She giggled "No it's okay. Just a bit unexpected. This is happening kind of fast."

He grinned his trademark grin "Ha yeah it is isn't it? I like it though. I like being here with you."

"I couldn't agree more. So, I'll get my stuff, and meet you in the morning?"

"Sounds good Hinata-chan. We are meeting at the front gate first thing. So meet me outside the hospital here about an hour before?"

She nodded "Okay Naruto-kun."

With regret she slowly detached herself from his arms and stood up before helping him stand as well. Hugging him again she whispered "I'll see you tomorrow morning. I love you Naruto-kun."

Feeling his arms wrap around her and return the hug, she pressed her forehead to his chest while he whispered back "I love you too Hinata-chan. See you in the morning, I promise."

Smiling brightly the young girl detached herself and left the hospital. Headed home for what was likely to be the last time for quite some time. Happy was quite the understatement to describe her mood. She had the love of the boy she wanted most, and he wanted her to go with him to train! Sighing happily she almost skipped along.

The blonde watched her walk home from his hospital window. A smile across his face at the new found love in his life. He had already decided that today had gone from horrible to amazing in a few short minutes. He was going to get stronger with Hinata beside him every step of the way. He was going to be happy, and make her happy along with him.

Naruto Uzumaki and Hinata Hyuga both smiled into the night. At peace with what had just happened between them and looking forward to what the future would bring. They had no idea, just how much this would change them. But they knew that together they would see it through to the end. Together, they could change the world

 **A/N: Whew! It's a bit longer than I wanted it to be. I hope you all enjoyed the start to this story! Please review! :)**


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N: Well guys here is chapter 3! I hope you enjoy it as it took me awhile to correct and edit this one. What I get for writing super late at night haha! Thanks to everyone who followed, favorited or reviewed! I appreciate the kind words and the critiqes! I know that I did a 180 with Naruto abruptly changing his feelings. But I choose to focus on the results of if he did such a thing rather than the journey of him actually c** **hanging those feelings. Anyways! Here is the chapter, I hope you enjoy it :)**

* * *

It was still dark out when Naruto rolled out of bed. Yawning and stretching he grinned before quickly throwing on some clothes and dispatching a clone to retrieve his things from his apartment. Today was the day!

He couldn't help but be utterly thrilled as he kept thinking about what was in store for him. He was going out to train with Pervy Sage, learn some awesome new jutsu for who knows how many years, and do it all with his new girlfriend!

Opening the window he dropped to the ground before casually strolling over to a nearby tree to have a seat and wait. Truthfully, he was nervous. As he leaned back again the trunk he decided to busy himself with his surroundings to settle his nerves.

It was still dark, with the beginnings of daylight starting to appear over the horizon. It was still a bit chilly this early, with a light breeze out of the north. Winter would be around the corner before long and the trees where just beginning to shed their leaves. Swaying gently in the breeze, multicolored leaves would take a quick yet graceful spiral to the ground after detaching themselves from their hosts.

It was peaceful to say the least, but a storm was brewing inside the young mans head. He knew that leaving and going to train was the right thing to do. And he also knew that he couldn't just leave his new girlfriend all alone. But he was starting to doubt.

How could he not? In his life nothing had been just handed to him. Yet Hinata had basically handed him her love and asked for nothing in return. He was still somewhat confused by the entire situation honestly. Sure he realized that Hinata meant a lot to him, and he had told her that he loved her. But a part of him felt like he was betraying a part of himself by admitting this.

Sighing and looking up at the slowly brightening sky he kept up his thought process. He wasn't quite sure what was the matter. The night before, in the moment of it all, when he was down and only one person was there for him, Hinata had made him feel things he had never felt before.

Naruto wasn't good at this emotion thing. He knew without doubt that what he felt for Hinata wasn't something he had felt before. He called it love, for it was similar to how he felt about Iruka-sensei and the old man Hokage. He felt like smiling when he thought of her, and so, he would call this emotion love unless he found another way to describe it.

Caught up in his thoughts Naruto barely noticed as the object of his pondering walked up to him. She was dressed in her typical outfit. Blue pants and sandals with her cream colored baggy jacket. She smiled at him as she walked to stand in front on him and he instantly smiled back before hopping to his feet.

"Hi Hinata! I'm glad your here! And I'm really glad your coming with me."

"I'm glad you asked me too Naruto. I really am happy." She smiled and played with the straps on her pack a bit.

Naruto chuckled "We should get going though. Don't want to keep Pervy Sage waiting." He set off walking down the path before starting the conversation again "You sleep well Hinata?"

Quickly catching up and walking next to him she responded "Yes actually I slept very well. Did you?" The small talk was catching her a bit off guard but Hinata was just happy to have Naruto talking to her.

"I always sleep good but for some reason I feel a lot more rested than I usually do. I guess it had something to do with thinking about how amazing today is going to be." He scratched the back of his head grinning.

Hinata giggled and shyly pushed her fingers together as a blush spread across her face "Yeah, today is going to be pretty amazing!"

The two continued small talk of the chilly weather and other assorted topics as they walked side by side to the front gates. It was only a matter of minutes before they reached their designation to find Jirayia already waiting.

Upon seeing his new student was accompanied by someone else, with a pack no less, the sannin sighed inwardly. Of course things already were not going smoothly. He crossed his arms as the two stopped in front of them then fixated his gaze on a very awkward looking Naruto.

"Naruto. I believe my instructions where meet me at the front gate, ready to be gone for years, alone." He put emphasis on the last word.

"Well you see Pervy Sage.. Last night I was feeling pretty down about this entire thing and Hinata helped me feel better. And one thing lead to another, and she told me some things, and uh... Well one thing lead to another... And uh.." His voice trailed off into a mumble with his face growing redder as each word left his mouth.

The older man sighed as he looked between the two. With the way both where blushing he could tell that this had obviously gone somewhere Naruto was quite inexperienced in. He knew the girl of course. Hinata Hyuga wasn't someone that anyone in a position such as his wouldn't know about.

The heiress to the Hyuga clan, she was quiet, shy, but she possessed a strength that not many people managed to see. Her own father overlooked it regularly. He kept looking between the two as slowly an idea started to form in his head. He was going to have fun with this.

"I don't care Naruto. I told you to do something and you didn't follow directions already. How am I suppose to know you will do as I say, when I say to do it when we are out training? It's going to be super dangerous and I need to know that my student is going to listen to me with out fail."

"But Pervy Sage! I just couldn't leave her here alone!"

Jirayia held up a hand "Listen Naruto, that's not a valid excuse for not following the instructions I gave you. You are a shinobi, it is your job to follow the instructions of those appointed over you, without fail. Do you understand that?"

Naruto looked down and clenched his fists. "I understand Pervy Sage. But this is something I had to do. I knew you would be upset about it, but it didn't matter to me. I realized last night that Hinata is precious to me, no way am I just going to leave her here knowing the things I do and feeling how I feel. If you won't take the both of us, then I'll get stronger on my own here in the village, believe it."

Hinata was almost in tears. At first it was because Naruto's teacher obviously didn't want her with them, and then because of the way her new boyfriend was standing up for her. He was refusing to go train unless she was allowed to come with them. It was enough to send her heart into over drive. She thought she loved Naruto before, now her feelings where just growing stronger and stronger.

Inwardly Jirayia smiled but kept a frown on his face on the outside. "So you are willing to throw all I can teach you away just so you can stay with your girlfriend? You would put someone you care deeply for before your own needs?"

Naruto looked up. "Yes. Every time. I'll still being Sasuke back. I'll still defeat the Akatsuki. I never go back on my word, believe it."

Now the sannin allowed the smile to break through and be seen. Seeing instant confusion in both the boys and girls eyes at this he gently laid a hand in each of their shoulders.

"In the shinobi world, those who break the rules are scum you know. But it takes a special kind of shinobi to put their comrades before themselves or a mission. As young as you both are, it seem you understand this concept already. There is a lot I can teach you both. Yes Hinata I can teach you a lot as well. Actually your Bakyugan will come in quite handy for the training I have in mind for Naruto."

The young ninja continued to stare up at the man in stunned silence before finally Hinata managed to gather her voice.

"So I'm allowed to come?" She prayed to every known god that this was the case and she was hearing things correctly.

"Of course! Provided you follow the exact same guidelines as Naruto. You do what I say, when I say to do it. And train your hardest."

Hinata stood straight before bowing slightly. "Thank you! I will do everything you ask! Thank you!"

Beside her Naruto jumped for joy. "Alright! You get to come with me Hinata! This is great!" He wrapped the girl in a hug which she happily returned, both of them laughing and smiling.

Jirayia chuckled as he watched the pair, thinking to himself. What a pair these two made. He hoped this would work out in both of their favors and didn't end up causing issues. But even if they fell apart, it was still going to be a great learning experience for them both.

"Alright you two. It's about time we set off. Take one last look at the village, because we won't be back here for a few years." He turned and headed off down he road.

Naruto and Hinata both turned and took one last look at the village before turning to each other smiling. Without a word they set off following their new master, hand in hand, eager to find out what adventures where in store for them.


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N: So! I said awhile back that I had 4 chapters worth of material written so far. I ended up being unable to sleep and edited the 4th chapter quicker than intended. Since that's the case I decided to go ahead and post it for everyone to see! Hopefully you enjoy it! :)**

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A week had gone by already. The trio had left many miles between them and the village. They stopped in the early evenings to set up camp and get a bit of training in. Currently Naruto was attempting to work on his chakra control and was getting mixed results. Hinata was trying to help him, but he was having loads of trouble grasping the concept of only needing to use small amounts of chakra for little things.

It was not surprising of course. Naruto was gifted with an absolutely massive reservoir of chakra at this disposal. He had never had much of a need to limit the amount of chakra he used for most jutsu. This was the main reason for Hinata being allowed to come along on this training.

As a Hyuga, she had an advanced degree of chakra control already at such a young age. Coupled with the fact that thanks to the Bakyugan, she could actually physically see the amount of chakra Naruto was putting out, she could directly relay to him how much excess chakra he was expending.

Jirayia had hoped that with Hinata's eyes and knowledge, Naruto would grasp the concept quicker and make greater strides. Add on the fact that every task that involved advanced control Hinata could already do, or quickly mastered, it had been another hope that it would spur the young man to try harder. However... Chakra control was a lost concept to him currently.

Sighing he glanced at his students. "Naruto, your still using way too much chakra for just simple shadow clones. The only exercise you can manage is tree climbing and walking on water. Honestly your way behind in chakra control."

Naruto glared. "Oh come on Pervy Sage! I'm trying here! It's a lot harder than it looks! If I didn't have so much chakra to burn maybe this wouldn't be so hard!"

The sannin frowned. "Look Naruto. You can't make excuses like that. Just because you have a lot of chakra doesn't mean you can waste it! You need to learn to use as little as possible. What if your in battle for days? Wasted chakra will eventually catch up to even you and then where will you be?"

The boy grumbled. "Well if I could figure out a way to act like I had less I would..."

Jirayia opened his mouth to yell more then shut it in thought before speaking again. "Maybe there is a way to actually accomplish that."

"What do you mean Pervy Sage? Just pretend I don't have that much? But as soon as I draw on the chakra I can feel how much is there."

"No no no. Not pretend. We might can physically limit the amount of chakra that you have access too at a given point."

Naruto sat down with his arms crossed over his chest. "Well how we going to do that?"

Grinning Jirayia pointed to Hinata. "She's going to limit your chakra."

Up until now Hinata had been doing her own exercises off to the side, hearing her name she promptly turned towards the other two. "I'm sorry, what will I be doing master Jirayia?"

With a hint of an evil gleam in his eye the old Sage responded. "I'm going to have you use your Gentle Fist on Naruto to shut down some of his chakra points so that he doesn't have access to all of his chakra. With a limited supply I'm hoping it will force him to learn control faster."

Naruto gulped and Hinata's eyes widened. She couldn't hurt Naruto like that! Although.. She had to admit that it might would work. She herself had a vastly smaller supply so control was something she had to learn in order to last in longer skirmishes. Frowning she looked at the ground.

"Well the Gentle Fist isn't exactly very gentle master Jirayia... I don't want to actually hurt Naruto."

"Nonsense! He heals fast! I've seen him take way worse than a few love taps and be back on his feet in no time! Plus anything you close you can reopen correct?"

Blushing slightly at the choice of words, she tapped her fingers together nervously. "Well... I've never practiced reopening closed points.. I know I could close a few, but opening them is another story..."

"Excellent! This can be part of your training as well!"

Naruto jumped up. "Whoa so I'm a test subject now!?"

"Hey you both said you where going to do what I say when I say to do it! So shut up and get ready for this!"

"Standing still while someone attacks me doesn't sound like a proper training method! Just what are you trying to pull Pervy Sage!?"

"Pull? I'm not pulling anything! I'm trying to make your stupid self learn chakra control! And this is obviously the best way to do it, so shut up already."

Hinata watched the two bicker back and forth for a few more moments like two siblings before she started to giggle. Hearing this they promptly stopped their mini fight to look at her. Both grinned and scratched the back of their heads before Jirayia spoke.

"Well anyways, I still think it's the best idea, but it's late right now as it is. We can always try it tomorrow."

"If you really think it will work Pervy Sage.."

"I do! Plus, look at it this way Naruto. Hinata said she hasn't practiced reopening chakra points, so by letting her practice on you, your going to be helping her train as well."

Smiling at Hinata, Naruto gave a thumbs up. "Hey if that's the case then I'm all in! Anything to help!"

Hinata smiled back while inwardly starting to worry. What if she couldn't reopen the points at all? It could be days before they reopened on their own, if ever without proper medical care. She could seriously cripple Naruto if she wasn't careful!

Yawning widely Naruto stretched before looking up at the rapidly darkening sky. "Well it is late, and I am tired. We can do this tomorrow. Good night Pervy Sage!"

"Good night you two." Crawling into his tent Jirayia promptly went to sleep.

Standing alone now the two young ninja looked awkwardly at each other. Both were entirely new to this entire "couple" thing. So Naruto stood there scratching the back of his head, while Hinata pushed her index fingers together in front of her chest.

Mustering up some courage, the young girl walked over to Naruto before smiling and giving him a hug. "Good night Naruto. I'll see you in the morning."

Returning the hug and the smile the boy replied. "Good night Hinata. Sweet dreams."

With that the two retired to their separate tents for the night. Blissfully slipping off into dreams of adventure and romance.

The next few days played out exactly the same as the previous ones for the most part. Traveling during the day, with Jirayia teaching them small, yet interesting facts about the world or jutsu. At night they set up camp, trained, then went to sleep.

Thankfully Hinata was able to grasp the art of opening chakra points she closed relatively quickly. And thanks to having his chakra supply limited when he was working on control, Naruto was quickly becoming more proficient at it by the day. No longer was he using the amount of chakra that could preform 4 jutsu to do 1.

His rapid improvement pleased Jirayia. He was beginning to see that allowing Hinata to come along might have just been a stroke of inspiration. For some reason she inspired the boy to work even harder, and in turn for every bit Naruto pushed himself, she would push herself well beyond her own limits to try and keep up with him. They perfectly complemented each other.

Leaning against a tree trunk writing some notes down from the research he had managed to do while they passed through a village earlier, he was surprised when the frog he had left with Tsunade suddenly appeared in front of him.

Frowning he took the sealed letter from it before quickly opening it and scanning its contents. Every word managed to sour his mood further and further bringing angry thoughts to the front of his brain. She did what!?

Getting up he stomped off to his two training students, absolutely furious. "Hinata!"

Caught by surprise from the sudden shout, the girl slipped and almost fell from the tree she was climbing before Naruto managed to catch her. Quickly dropping to the ground both looked at their master.

"Yes master Jirayia?" Hinata could tell he was upset, and she hoped it didn't have to do with her training, she had thought she was doing so well!

"Hinata. When we left. Who did you ask permission from in order to leave?"

Hinata gulped. "Uh.. I.. Um... I... I.. I wrote a letter to my father explaining what I was doing..." Her voiced trailed off weakly at the end.

Jirayia sighed. "You realize what you have done don't you? This is not good at all Hinata."

Naruto looked absolutely confused and Hinata's eyes started to widen as she started to realize just exactly what she had done.

"Oh no! Don't tell me!?" She fell to her knees, tears springing to her eyes.

Sighing the sannin looked down at her. "Yes, to the Hyuga clan, you left the village on your own, without orders. To them your now a runaway with the Bakyugan and without a seal."

Hinata couldn't do anything but sob uncontrollably. Words just wouldn't come out right now. Naruto was still confused but he dropped down beside her and draped an arm around her shoulders. She instantly buried her face in his chest, crying all the more.

"Hey Pervy Sage... What's going on? What did Hinata do exactly?"

"Naruto.. The Hyuga clan has strict rules. As you know, the branch house has the caged bird seal to help control them. The main house doesn't have the seal, but anytime they leave the village it is only with the express permission of the clan. Hinata didn't ask if she was allowed to leave the village, and she is the clans heir. It's safe to say that they are quite upset. Right now they have denounced her as the heir and declared her a rouge ninja. They contacted Tsunade to assemble a hunter nin squad to bring her back."

"But that's crazy! She's with us! If she's a rouge ninja then so are we!"

"Sadly it doesn't work that way Naruto.. Hinata is a Hyuga first and a member of the village ninja teams second. Even if she's with me, with out the clans permission to leave she's still rouge. Actually to the clan right now, if they know she is with us, they most likely consider us to be harboring a rouge ninja and would press for us to be punished as well."

"But that's crazy! We haven't done anything wrong! And neither has Hinata!"

Jirayia just shook his head. "Like I said, it just doesn't work like that. We only really have two options at this point. Naruto, me and you are outside with permission from the Hokage, so we can't be touched. Technically speaking this is an S ranked mission. But Hinata.."

Hinata stopped crying and looked at Jirayia. "What are the options? How can I make this right? It didn't mean to break the rules, I just thought it would be okay since I was with you. I thought my father wouldn't care I was gone anyways. He just thinks I'm in the way.."

The sannin sighed. "Your options are this: you can stay with us and keep acting like nothing happened. I'll send my toad back saying that your staying with us. Lady Tsunade would then have to inform your clan that your not returning as directed. She would be forced to send out hunter nins after you, and you would officially be labeled a rouge ninja."

Hinata gasped and Naruto pulled her tighter to him. "If they come after her I'll beat them to a pulp, believe it!"

Chuckling dryly, Jirayia shook his head. "Even I don't want to have to fight off hunter nin Naruto. We could avoid them most likely but I'm not sure for how long. Plus Hinata would never be able to return the the village again."

Silence stretched as the enormity of the situation started to sink in for the boy. Jirayia contined.

"As for the second option... Hinata. I could send my toad back and explain that this was a mistake and we are returning right away to correct it. Of course.. With them having already disowned you as the heir.. You know what that would mean."

Hinata's eyes widened in fear and she clung to Naruto more.

"In the end it's your choice, this is your life, not mine or Naruto's. So you do whatever is best for you Hinata."

Silence engulfed the group again for a seemingly endless time as Hinata sat there contemplating just what she was going to do. After almost an hour passed without a spoken word she sighed before giving her answer.

"I want to return to the village, and make this right."

Jirayia's face instantly went grim. "You sure about this? You know what awaits you if we return."

Steeling herself the girl nodded. "Yes. This is my mistake, and I have to make it right."

"Alright then.. I wish there was something I could do Hinata. I really do. If it helps, once all this goes down I'll petition to the elders to allow you to travel with us to help with Naruto's training still."

A small smile played at the corner of Hinata's lips. "Thank you master Jirayia. I would like that."

Getting up, Jirayia went back to the tree where he left his frog and started writing a letter to send back. Naruto looked down at the girl he was still holding, obviously confused by the entire thing. He was worried too. The look on Pervy Sages face when Hinata had said she wanted to return to the village had him with a bad feeling in the pit of his stomach.

"Say Hinata?.."

"Yes Naruto?" She turned slightly to look up at him.

"What exactly is waiting when we go back? You and Pervy Sage both looked really worried."

Tears sprang to Hinata's eyes again and she buried her face in his chest. "Oh Naruto. I made a really big mistake. And it's going to change my life forever. They disowned me.."

"But what does that mean exactly?"

Closing her eyes, she clung to Naruto as tight as she could before whispering. "When we get back.. They are going to seal me with the caged bird seal."

 **A/N: hehe a proper cliff hanger! I couldn't resist! As I've not actually written the next part yet, I'll have to leave you guys with this for now! Look forward to what's next for Naruto and Hinata! I think you guys just might like it, or maybe not.. Have to wait and see! Hehehe... ;) Sky out! o/**


	5. Chapter 5

Naruto chpt 5-

 **Hi guys! Sky here with chapter five! I know it's a bit later than my usual updates but I really struggled with this one... I feel that the quality may have slipped a little with this one but I hope you all find it entertaining! Enjoy! :)**

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The journey back was a lot different than the journey away had been. When they had left the village, the young ninja had been excited. They looked forward to what the future held for them with bright eyes and smiles. But now.. It was quite depressing to be say the least.

To say that Hinata was terrified was an understatement. And her mood was directly affecting Naruto. While normally laughing and joking, even he was aware of the seriousness of the situation. And with it being so obvious that even Naruto was strangely subdued, Hinata was panicking even more.

She couldn't stop fidgeting for more than a few moments. She kept constantly looking over her shoulder and would jump about a foot in the air at any odd noise. She was slowly but surly slipping into having a nervous breakdown. It wouldn't be too much longer before she cracked completely and went off the deep end. The stress and fear was getting to her that much.

Strangely enough, Naruto was actually paying attention to these things. He could see the panic and fear in Hinata's eyes and it cut him to the core. He wished more than anything that he could say something to make her feel better but he was honestly just as scared as she was. This wasn't something he could physically fight. If her clans elders elected to seal her, there was nothing he, she or anyone could do to stop them.

Naruto knew however, that seal or no seal, it wasn't going to change what he was starting to accept more and more about the girl. He has enjoyed the past week with her immensely. She made him feel special, accepted him for all his flaws and throughly enjoyed being in his company regardless of his mood. He was falling further and further, and enjoying the ride down.

As these thoughts came to mind, the young man had an idea. He wasn't sure if it would actually help Hinata, but he was willing to try it out. Smiling a bit, he reached over and gently took her hand. Slipping his fingers in between hers he gently tugged and brought her closer to him.

Hinata jumped a bit at the touch before looking over to him, her eyes questioning.

"Don't worry so much Hinata. No matter what happens, I'll be here beside you every step of the way. Together we can make it through this, believe it."

The panic left her eyes only to be replaced by tears. The girl leaned her head against Naruto's shoulder and tightened her hand around his. She couldn't find the words at the moment to say it, but she was thankful for the gesture. Just having Naruto stand beside her was enough to restore her courage.

The village wasn't far off now, but as they walked hand in hand, neither seemed to mind. Both young ninja savored the moment they had in the present. Later would bring changes, but they would face them together.

It was a bit past midday when the group made it back to the village. The trip back had taken them only two days total, they had rushed so as to attempt to lesson the backlash from Hinata's actions if they could.

Upon their arrival they had instantly headed for the Hokage building without making a single stop along the way. Jirayia had informed both that going to see Tsunade before the Hyuga clan elders was in Hinata's best interests. If she could do something to help the girl, she naturally would.

Their meeting alone had been brief. Tsunade had confirmed what Hinata expected, the clan was furious. Since she was a member of the clan first, Tsunade could do nothing to spare her from punishment. Not that she hadn't tried. The elders had all been for sending hunter ninja and washing their hands of the entire thing, but Tsunade had stepped in by informing them that she had placed Hinata on the S ranked mission with Naruto and Jirayia to bring the team up to three.

This had slightly calmed them for a few moments, until someone brought up that Hinata still had failed to request permission from the clan in order to leave. Plus why would they EVER send the clan heir on an S ranked mission? If she died on such a mission, highly likely considering the girl was an utter failure, the Bakyugan would be placed at risk of being retrieved by the enemy.

That was unacceptable. It was perfectly fine if the girl died, her sister was a much better heir anyways, but her going to an unknown location for an unknown amount of time put the Bakyugan and their clans secrets at great risk; this could never be allowed.

The stupid girl had finally over played and danced across the line that her father couldn't protect her from. The elders where honestly ecstatic about the situation and where having difficulties keeping it under wraps. For years, they had pressured Hiashi to denounce his eldest and place Hanabi has the clan heir. And for years he has adamantly refused and kept the girl in the place of her birthright.

It was strange to them that he would actually. He found her to be just as much of a failure as they did. Even going so far as to pawn her training off onto the village itself and allowing her to be attached to its ninja teams. Of course, this has further fueled the elders rage. The failure of a heir was allowed to publicly shame them repeatedly by being weak.

Failed in the chunin exams, to a member of the branch house no less! Failed countless missions since then, showed next to no progression in terms of strength. And when the village prodigy runs away, because of her weakness was looked over for a member of the branch house to go on the mission to retrieve him. These embarrassments could not be allowed to continue, and the elders had decided that they would not. Hinata would be made an example of, weakness and failure where not to be tolerated.

All of these things and much more had been discussed. It was quite obvious to Tsunade that Hinata receiving any kind of leniency from her clan was out of the question, and she had despaired. Even now after her short talk with the returning trio however, she couldn't find it in her heart to tell the girl that there just wasn't any hope.

Sighing she addressed them. "As I told you, the Hyuga clan elders and head will not be coming here. They demand that you present yourself to them at the clan building. I did manage to allowed for Jirayia, myself and Naruto to be allowed to attend because they can bear testimony to the mission I attached you too and your actions not having any ill intent. However, ultimately I have no control over the outcome Hinata. As a member of the Hyuga clan you are bound by their rules and traditions."

Hinata looked up fearfully from the chair she sat in. "I understand Lady Tsunade. Thank you for everything you tried to do and did do for me. I'm very thankful. I made my choice, and I will stand behind it and face the consequences of my actions."

"That's very brave of you. I wish that I could have done more.. But as you said, what's done is done. We should be off however."

Nodding slightly, Hinata stood up along with Jirayia and Naruto before heading out the door. It took only seconds for her hand to snake out and grasp Naruto's, earning a small smile and a gentle squeeze. With Tsunade following them they headed to the meeting with the Hyuga elders.

It didn't take long to get across the village and to the Hyuga mansion. A quick word to one the servants and they where all quickly shown to the elders room. At the far end a long table sat with Hiashi in the middle flanked on both sides by two elders. All of their expressions where the same, portraying nothing but anger and resentment.

Hinata took a seat on the floor in front of them as directed, while the others stood at the back of the room. Silently they awaited the start of the meeting, and it wasn't long before one of the elders started to speak.

"Hinata Hyuga. You have been summoned today to face punishment for breaking the sacred rules and traditions of the Hyuga clan. You have repeatedly shown to be nothing short of an absolute embarrassment to the Hyuga name. You have failed to live up to the expectations as clan heir and a member of the main house. This has gone on for far too long, and we will no longer tolerate such actions. Therefore we have decided as clan elders, to leave your just punishment in the hands of your father and clan head Hiashi Hyuga. It is him you have shamed the most. Hiashi if you would please?"

Hinata stared in fear as her father rose from his seat, his eyes roaming over her with a look of disappointment. "Hinata. You have finally left me with no choice. Your actions have done nothing but disgrace the clan. Allowing yourself to be beaten by a member of the branch house and your own sister who is five years your younger. These actions alone should have spelled your instant disownment as heir, but I was foolish and did nothing, hoping that you could change and show you are worth more. You have once again, proven me wrong. You have now disregarded the most basic of rules within our clan, that even a small child knows. I can not fathom how you could possibly hope to justify this action, nor do I want to hear it. Therefore, as clan head I have decided that you will face the ultimate punishment for your disgraces."

At these words Hinata went white as a sheet and Jirayia had to grab Naruto to keep him from doing anything rash. They had known that this was going to be bad, but hearing her own father say the things he was now brought the stark reality to clear view.

The elders looked amazingly pleased with themselves. This was going perfectly according to plan. Hiashi hadn't said much until now, but with his obvious fury and statement, they saw only one conclusion, and it was the one they had wanted for years. The little failure was going to be sealed!

"Hinata. As clan head I, Hiashi Hyuga, banish you from the clan and strip you of the name Hyuga. You are no longer my daughter, nor a member of this clan. All rights you had as both of those things are no longer available to you. Remove yourself immediately from the Hyuga grounds and do not return."

At these words a collective gasp arose from everyone present. Tsunade actually smirked, and the elders looked livid beyond belief. The elder from before jumped up.

"This is preposterous! Seal the failure and throw her into the branch house! Banishment!? She has the Bakyugan! She is Hyuga and must abide by our rules!"

Hiashi fixed the elder with a cold stare. "No, she is not a Hyuga any longer. When I decided to stop her ninja training, I turned her over to the Hokage for attachment to the villages ninja teams. This was voted on by the council of elders and approved. As such, I'm now disowning her as my daughter and stripping her of the name Hyuga. As a ninja of the village hidden in the leaves, this puts her under the direct leadership of the Hokage. Correct me if I'm wrong lady Hokage, but you do not practice the use of the cursed seal?"

Tsunade instantly spoke up. "No we do not. Since Hinata has no ties to the Hyuga clan any longer that makes her my problem in her punishment now correct?"

Hiashi nodded and Tsunade continued. "Alright. Then since that is the case, and I attached Hinata to the team with Jirayia and Naruto myself, she is in no fault what so ever. Case dismissed, you three may head back to my office to await further instructions. I think your mission parameters have now changed."

The elders could do nothing more than stare in absolute fury as Jirayia and Naruto quickly bowed and helped a nearly comatose Hinata to stand and quickly exit the room. Biding goodbye to Hiashi and the elders Tsunade quickly made her exit as well before finally allowing a huge smile to grace her face.

Heading back to the Hokage building she felt quite amazing to say the least. Of course she was going to have to explain all of this to Hinata and the others, but not having to sit and watch the girl be sealed, has vastly improved her mood. Today wasn't such a bad day after all.

 **Whew! So that's chapter five guys.. I really had a hard time writing this one.. As I had no idea how I was going to pull off what I wanted to accomplish with this. I know I created a lot of questions for you guys, but just hang in there! I'm going to answer all the holes in the next few chapters. If you want, feel free to send me a pm with questions as well! I hope you all enjoyed my drama chapter. Sky out! :) o/**


	6. Chapter 6

**Hey guys! Back with another chapter! I know it's a bit late... Got distracted by the new FF14 patch, fancy new content to enjoy! (Sorry I'm a huge MMO player!) But anyways... Moving on! :) Thanks to everyone who reviewed/followed/favorited. Most of you have b** **een super kind and I really appreciate it. This chapter is going to be a lot of OC material to set up the direction I'm planning to take this in, so bear with me guys. I hope you enjoy it as much I as enjoyed writing it. Here goes!**

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Tsunade made her way back to the Hokage building with a bit of a bounce in her step. Of course she knew she had a lot of explaining to do for Hinata's benefit but she couldn't help feeling a bit giddy about how things had turned out. Who would of thought that stiff old Hiashi would pull one over on those stupid elders for his daughter sake.

Arriving, she quickly headed up to her office, hoping that Jirayia had gotten the two young ninja up there without too much trouble. Despite how things had turned out, quite well given the circumstances, there where no doubts that both Hinata and Naruto felt this had gone very badly.

She paused with her hand on the door knob. She could hear Naruto speaking softly amidst Hinata's sobs. Sighing softly she opened the door. Time to get this wrapped up properly, she thought, no use leaving them like this.

As Tsunade entered the room Naruto looked up from where he sat in front of her desk next to Hinata. He had his arm around she shoulder while she sobbed uncontrollably with her head in her hands.

"Granny Tsunade! Couldn't you have done something!? That was brutal! I can't believe you just allowed them to say and do all those mean things to Hinata and just stood there! You're suppose to protect your ninja are you not!? Isn't Hinata one of the ninja of the village! How could you!?"

Walking to her desk and sitting down, she slammed her fist on the top before replying. "I told you both before we went that it was outside of my control. Hinata knew the costs and what could become a result of her actions."

"Still! It's completely unfair! You said yourself that you added her to the mission! She's a leaf ninja! They had no right to punish her if she was added by your orders! That stupid Hiashi and those stupid elders! I'll beat them to a pulp until they take Hinata back, believe it!"

Tsunade smirked. "Well at the time they had every right, since Hinata was a Hyuga. However since Hiashi just pulled his little trick back there, the Hyuga clan can no longer touch her."

"Yeah! They can't touch her now! So why did you..." Naruto stopped telling mid sentence. "Wait.. Little trick?.. What on earth are you talking about Granny Tsunade?"

Jirayia sighed from his spot leaning against the wall. "Look you idiot. Tsunade is trying to tell you that despite what it might seem like, Hiashi just saved Hinata a load of pain and suffering. You should be thanking him, not threatening to beat him to a pulp."

The blonde scratched his head. "Helped her? I don't see how banishing her from the clan helps her out. He took away her name, her title, how does that help her?"

It was Tsunade's turn to sigh. "Naruto. Think for a moment. Remember, the Hyuga clan has strict rules and guidelines that have to be followed. Hinata broke those rules, which is what brought us to here. I didn't know it myself at the time, but apparently due to this the Hyuga clan head was left with two options. The one we all assumed would happen, Hinata receive the caged bird seal. Or banishment from the clan. Actually I'm very surprised that banishment was even an option. But it appears that Hiashi knows what he is doing if the elders reactions left anything to show for it. I also suspect that ever since Hinata was attached to the villages ninja teams that he has known this was a loophole that he could exploit."

Hinata got a bit quieter as her sobs started to reside. Gently rubbing her shoulder Naruto was silent for a moment before speaking again.

"So what your saying, is that by banishing Hinata. They can't put the seal on her?"

"That's correct Naruto. She is no longer a member of the Hyuga clan, and therefore not bound by their rules and traditions. As a lead ninja she now falls under my direct control and authority. And the leaf does not practice the use of the caged bird seal on its members."

Hinata stopped crying completely at this. The room went silent as both Naruto and Hinata started to process this information. If it was really true that Hinata could no longer be sealed, then they had nothing to worry about. Of course this left Hinata with the knowledge that she was now clan less, having brought such a thing upon herself, but bring alone wasn't the end of the world. Naruto himself was proof that you didn't need a clan to turn out alright.

Actually if Hinata thought about it a bit, she wasn't really alone anyways. She had Naruto. He had already said that he wouldn't leave her alone no matter the results. And she had Master Jirayia as well, he has said he would love to have her leave with them again if at all possible. So she still had people that cared about her, even if she had lost someone along the way.

Tears started to flow for the girl again. "B..but.. Lady Tsunade.. If I'm not a Hyuga.. Then what am I? Am I really nothing? The elders said I would become nothing in the end years ago.. And they where right!"

Sobbing she buried her head in her hands again while Naruto gently patted her back. He was at a loss for words at this, and Tsunade was thinking carefully about what to say to hopefully cheer the girl up when a soft knock came from the door.

"Who is it?" Tsunade spoke.

Shizune opened the door slightly before answering. "Forgive me Lady Tsunade, but Lord Hiashi is here to see you. He insists that it is urgent and requested that you not send them away, as he has words that he feels they need to hear." She glanced at Hinata and Naruto quickly.

Tsunade was puzzled to say the least. What could Hiashi possibly want to say to them now? And why come all this way to do so. Sighing she nodded slightly. "Send him in then. Thank you Shizune."

Bowing Shizune turned and opened the door further before stepping back to allow Hiashi to enter the room. Fearfully glancing around she quietly excused herself before shutting the door and all but running as fast as she could away from there.

Naruto was glaring daggers at the man. Hinata was attempting to pull herself together to look at him, but was having massive difficulties in doing so. She turned slightly and looked up only to sob and bury her face in her hands again. She repeated this a few times before finding her voice and softly whispering.

"F..father?.."

Until this moment, Hiashi had stood still staring at Hinata and Naruto, who had his arm protectively around her. An absolute torrent of emotions swirled inside of him, and even with his years of experience controlling such things, he struggled to keep them under wraps. At Hinata's soft whisper, he gave up even trying.

Hiashi Hyuga fell to his knees in the middle of the hokage's office, and cried. Upon hearing his sobs Hinata looked up in stunned surprise before launching herself him him. She wrapped her arms around him in a hug and cried uncontrollably into his shoulder. And to her surprise, Hiashi hugged her back and held her close to him.

Tsunade and Jirayia where having trouble grasping the situation happening in front of them. Which meant that Naruto was more clueless than when Kakashi had taken pity on him and attempted to explain how sharingan worked. All three just watched in silence as the two held her other and cried in the middle of the floor.

After some time Hiashi finally managed to get his emotions back under some semblance of control and gently held Hinata away from him a bit. Hinata wiped her eyes and looked at him, torn between a multitude of emotions. Bowing his head slightly he started to speak for the first time since he entered the room.

"Hinata... I am so sorry that I couldn't do more for you. Could you ever forgive me for being a horrible father to you?"

Hinata's eyes widened. "B..but you havnt!"

Hiashi hushed her before shaking his head. "Oh but I have. Ever since your mother died, I have done nothing but distance myself from you and push you harder and harder. I never gave you the love you deserved, your took the time to actually be a parent to you, and for that I can never apologize enough. You see.. You're so much like your mother that it amazes me. Both in how you look and how you act. Just seeing that.. It hurt.. I miss her so much Hinata, and I lived down her memory in the way I treated you. I am so sorry.."

Hiashi broke into fresh tears here. Hinata started to cry more as well before gently hugging him again. As he hugged her back she softly whispered.

"It's okay.. I miss her too father. So much. It will be okay."

Hiashi chuckled softly before gently moving them apart again. "Even now you're more like her than like myself. But.. I didn't just come her to apologize for being a failure as a father. And yes I am a failure, I'm not so proud as to be unable to admit that. I came to explain just what this all means to you."

Hinata had been about to protest his statements on failure but had shut up as his looked had turned stern. She nodded before stepping back and returning to her seat beside Naruto in front of Tsunade's desk. Hiashi stood up and brushed himself off before speaking to the Hokage.

"Lady Tsunade. Forgive me as well for not giving you fair warning of what I planned to do at the meeting. This was my intent from the moment I found out about the situation but I felt that secrecy was required to ensure that the elders would do nothing to counter my plans."

"That's understandable Lord Hiashi. I was quite surprised to say the least, pleased but surprised. I could tell by the elders reactions that they had not considered this turn of events in the slightest."

"No they had no clue. As you know, I've been working for the last few years to do away with the seal entirely, yet they have opposed my every attempt at this nature. However, just before Hinata entered the academy I did manage to get them to approve an amendment to our rules. One that allows for any of our members attached to the villages ninja teams to be turned over to the Hokage in the event of transgressions, with all status stripped and banishment from the clan. This is the rule I invoked in Hinata's case, the first time that I have used it."

Tsunade nodded slightly while Jirayia made a whistling sound. Since neither spoke, Hiashi pressed on.

"I just spent the last hour throwing the rule in their faces and making it quite clear that they could do nothing about my ruling as they gave punishment over to me upon my own request in our own private meetings. The judgment was my right as clan head, and now they have to abide by it. Of course, they are extremely upset with me but I'm getting used to that over the years. What this means specifically for Hinata.. Is what I would like to to explain the most."

Hinata looked up at him while gently grasping Naruto's hand in her lap. The young blonde gently gave her hand a squeeze before focusing his attention on Hiashi along with everyone else.

"First: Hinata you are no longer a member of the Hyuga clan. You are not bound by its rules or traditions, nor do you have any say in clan activities. You may not step foot o the clan grounds without permission, and you will have to reside elsewhere. Second: because of this, you are no longer eligible to be clan heir despite your linage as my eldest daughter. In order to banish you, I have had to strip you of the name Hyuga, and only a Hyuga can be head."

He paused for a moment here as he saw tears threatening to flow from Hinata's eyes again.

"Do not despair completely however. While on paper, and as far as the clan is concerned, you are no longer my daughter. I can assure you, that in my heart you are every bit so, and I love you dearly. I truly wish that something else could have been done but.. I was left with no other options. I had this rule put into effect so that when the time came, if the elders forced you and Hanabi to fight for the right to clan head, I could banish the other to prevent either of you from being sealed. I made a promise long ago to your mother that I would never allowed either of you to be sealed, and I plan to die before I break that promise."

Tears really did start to flow for Hinata at these words. But she was no longer sad. Here was the proof she had spent the last few years of her life craving to obtain. Proof that without a shadow of doubt, her father loved and cared about her.

Smiling a bit, Hiashi continued. "Third and finally: I can't in good conscience allow you to wonder around without a name. I won't be the cause of you being completely clan less. As such, if you wish to take it, I have papers that allow you to take your mothers maiden name of Murasaki."

Hinata could only manage to nod as the tears flowed freely. Hiashi smiled a bit before walking over and gently kissing her forehead.

"I love you Hinata. Someday you will be an amazing kunouchi, I know it."

He turned to face Naruto.

"Naruto Uzumaki.. I know who you are, and I must say that I have been impressed by your accomplishments of recent date. You managed to beat my nephew in the chunin exams, and fight off Gaara of the Sand, among others. Please look after my daughter for me will you?"

Naruto was taken aback a bit but smiled at the man.

"Don't you worry about a thing. I'll make sure nothing happens to her, believe it."

Hiashi nodded before turning to Jirayia.

"I don't think I need to say anything here Master Jirayia. I know she is in good hands with you."

The sannin nodded. "Don't worry, I'll make sure she trains super hard. When she comes back, she's going to amaze everyone."

Smiling again Hiashi addressed the Hokage one last time. "Thank you for allowing this Lady Tsunade. It mean a lot to me. I'm afraid I have to go now however, I'll inform you of anything if it comes up." Bowing, he turned and took his leave.

Smiling in full now Tsunade addressed the young ninja sitting in front of her.

"Well now that I think we got everything straightened out. I think it's about time that I let you all get back to your training. Officially, this is still an S rank mission, so be safe out there. I guess I will see you all in a few years! Your dismissed."

The unlikely trio got up and headed out once again, quickly making their way outside the gates before stopping on a hill and looking back one last time at the village. Jirayia smiled.

"Take a last look guys. This time we really won't be coming back for quite some time. I didn't leave a toad this time, so they won't be able to find us at all even if they wanted. So let's go! I got lots of research to accomplish!"

"Hey! Pervy Sage! This is suppose to be about you training us! Not your sick research!"

"Well I'm the legendary Master Jirayia of the sannin! I can do both with my heads tied behind my back! Show me the respect I deserve you brat!"

"Your just one huge pervert! Nothing more! I bet you don't even know anything else that you can teach us!"

"Hey!"

Hinata Murasaki giggled softly to herself at the antics of her traveling companions. It had been an interesting week and some change to say the least. She had a new master, a new name, and best of all; a new boyfriend. Looking back, it sure had its bad moments, but she wouldn't change it for anything. After all, they still had to change the world.

 **Soooooo... I just did that. If anybody is wondering where I got Hinata's new name from, I made it up. I poured over google searches and manga chapters but never could find mention of Hinata's mothers name, beside Hikari Hyuga. Since I choose to believe that Hiashi married someone not blood related to himself, that left me with having to create a name.. So I typed "purple rose" into an English to Japanese translator and got Murasaki no bara. Stole Murasaki from that.. If anybody DOES happen to now her actual real maiden name.. Pm it to me and I'll happily change it. Anyways was a lot in this chapter and I'm not so sure I did a perfect job wrapping up this part.. Any questions feel free to pm me guys! And as always thanks for reading. This isn't even close to the end, so stick around ;)**

 **Sky out! o/ :)**


	7. Chapter 7

**Hey all! Back with another update. Not a very long one mind you, but using it to set up how I'm dealing with the time skip. More details at the end of the chapter! And oh meh god! Almost 6k views at time in posting this one! I'm so happy! You guys are all awesome and I thank you from the bottom of my heart for the support thus far. I plan to keep this going for a long time yet so stick around, I'll make it worth your while!**

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Wet. The first and only thought running through her mind right now. Too wet for training, yet here she was, going through form after form to make the movements as natural as breathing. This infernal rain needed to stop, as in two days ago.

Hinata let out a sigh and glared up at the dark clouds above as she started to head back to camp. It was quite annoying to say the least. First, two days ago, master Jiraiya had informed her that he needed to train Naruto for a bit alone. So she wasn't allowed anywhere near them until night fell and they all returned to camp. Which left her on her own during the day, and to make the loneliness even worse, it had promptly started raining the very first morning of this new training set up.

They had all been training together for close to two months, and this was the first time she had been left on her own to figure things out. Before, back in the village, she at least had Kiba or Shino to discuss things with and possibly gain new ideas. She knew she could talk to Naruto if she so desired, but when he returned to camp at night he had seemed so exhausted she left him alone for fear of interfering with his rest.

Truthfully, it might of been a good thing. Naruto didn't seem to be himself the past two days. He was a lot more tired than Hinata ever remember seeing him, and even more unusual, was the fact that he seemed prone to anger quickly over simple things. For example, just last night he had attempted to heat up some ramen and was having trouble getting the package to open. After a few moments of struggling with it, he has promptly tossed it across the campsite and cursed at the rain for making his hands too slick to open it.

Jiraiya had instantly retrieved the package and opened it for him. Whispering to Naruto who just nodded and sat down staring at the dirt. Strange behavior for a normally hyper active young boy, and it was honestly starting to worry Hinata.

In the past, she would have just worried in silence over it. Trying to do her best to keep it hidden that she was worried about Naruto, so as not to inconvenience him by worrying that his actions where causing her to worry. But now, she felt honor bound to do something for him to turn his mood around if she could.

Over the past two months, they had slowly came to an understanding of sorts about their new relationship. Naruto openly acknowledged that Hinata was his girlfriend, and she happily returned the favor. In the brief times they passed through a village, or chances upon other travelers, they would always find each other hand and hold on tight until they where past.

Mornings started with kind greetings and a short hug, evenings ended with a longer hug and soft whispers of sweet dreams. Hinata smiled at these thoughts before reality struck and brought her out of her thoughts. Not watching where she had been going, it was fate that she walked straight into the largest puddle around and promptly lost her footing.

With a short cry of surprise and a loud splash, the young girl found herself butt down in said puddle, throughly soaked to the bone.

"Brilliant," she thought, "just brilliant. I'm suppose to be a ninja and I can't even dodge a puddle? This is sad. I'm glad Naruto isn't here to see me like this."

Muttering to herself she picked herself up and finished the walk back to camp. It was still early, but this downpour pretty much made training a second thought. All she wanted right now was some dry clothes, her sleeping bag in her tent, and a hot bowl of soup. And maybe a few hugs from her boyfriend... Okay.. WAY more than a few!

Blushing at these thoughts she entered their campsite. It was simple, three tents sitting around the remains of the fire they had attempted to make during the first night when the rain had appeared to stop. Jiraiya always pitched his tent off to one side alone, and it was the largest, he claimed he needed the space for all his research material, whatever that meant. Naruto would pitch his as far away from Jiraiya's as possible, he claimed the snoring was impossibly loud, and Hinata would happily pitch hers next to his.

This kept the two young ninja away from their master, for a slight amount of privacy. They had spent many a night sitting outside their tents talking softly while camp fires had slowly burned out of existence. What Hinata wouldn't give to have another one of those nights right now, but in this weather? It was more likely that she would master the rasengan than that happen.

Not that Naruto and Jiraiya hadn't at least shown it to her. She understood the concept, but using it was a completely different matter. After a month of off and on attempts at it, she had nothing to show for those efforts. And to think Naruto mastered it in a matter of days! For all his faults, it could not be said that determination was one of them.

With another sigh, Hinata pushed open her tent and climbed inside. Quickly striping out of all her wet clothes, she put on a dry set before taking a towel to her hair. Quickly drying it, she sat down to run a brush through her rapidly lengthening strands. She had decided to allow it to grow out after much thought of the subject.

Actually that's a lie. It had taken her literally thirty seconds to decide to grow it out long. One night when her and Naruto had been having one of their late night chats about assorted topics, she had gotten a bit chilled and had ended up huddling close to him. Naruto had not objected in the slightest, but it wasn't long before she had felt him playing with her hair while they talked.

After realizing what he was doing, Naruto had apologized instantly. Hinata had of course let him know that it was fine before asking him if he liked her hair. Next had been a somewhat embarrassing back and forth between the two of them that ended with Naruto admitting that he liked how soft her hair felt and had a preference for longer hair, as it gave him something to fiddle with. Which had immediately made up Hinata's mind that growing her hair out was in both of their best interests.

Smiling to herself she finished brushing her hair before laying down and staring at the roof of her tent. Lost in thought for a few moments she heard the sound of Naruto and Jiraiya returning to camp. She was about to get up and venture back out when she heard Naruto's voice from just outside her tent.

"Hey you still awake Hinata?"

"Yes, I'm still awake. If you want to come in you can, get out of the rain."

The flap opened and Naruto poked his head in with a small grin. "Thanks but I just wanted to tell you good night Hinata. Pervy Sage worked me pretty hard today and I'm exhausted. But I thought I would check in on you before I crashed."

Hinata smiled. "Thanks Naruto. I'm fine, just tired as well. This rain is starting to get on my nerves."

"Yea mine too!" He laughed. "Hopefully it stops soon. I kinda miss getting to sit up late talking with you. Anyways though, good night Hinata, I'll see you in the morning. And sweet dreams!"

"Good night Naruto, sweet dreams."

With that Naruto let the flap drop closed again and Hinata heard him crawling into his own tent. Smiling still she laid back down. Despite the rain, she just felt like smiling. Even though she knew he had to be tired, Naruto had made an effort to check on her before he went to sleep. This alone was enough to make her giddy with joy. And he returned her sentiment that their late night talks had been amazing!

Closing her eyes she left her body succumb to the fatigue that training and weather had inflicted on it. Things could only get better from here she thought. And with that, she drifted off to sleep.

Elsewhere in the shinobi world...

A hooded figure wound its way between decaying houses and other buildings. The stench of decay and neglect was quite apparent, and the figure curled his lip in disgust. A million other places he would rather be at right now, yet that insufferable man had forced him to stoop this low.

Reaching his designation, he quickly and quietly slipped inside before greeting the man waiting for him.

"So you're here already, good. We can make this fast then."

The man stepped backwards slightly and sunk into the shadows more, before speaking.

"I came as you requested. Word has it, that you need more dirty work done, and are paying well for it."

"Yes yes. I need to have someone taken care of again." The hooded figure glared at the man in shadows. "I don't see why you still insist on not showing your face to me. We have been doing business for years together."

The man chuckled. "Yes but anonymity in my line of work is often the greatest line of defense."

"I suppose that's true, you know who I am however. But alas, I'm pressed for time so I'll be quick. I need you to kill a girl for me. A former member of my clan. Her father thinks that he saved her from a fate worse than death, I wish for you to prove him wrong."

The surprise in the mans voice was unmistakable. "Correct me if I'm wrong, but you wish for me to kill the ex heiress, Hinata Hyuga?"

With a growl the hooded man answersed. "She no longer a Hyuga. I managed to find out that she took her mothers maiden name of Murasaki before she left the village. Listen, I know that this would be quite a huge deal, so I'm prepared to double your pay for this one. Twn million, all in advance to ensure this gets done."

He dropped a bag of money on a nearby table. Silence stretched for a few moments before his business associate responded.

"As always, it's a pleasure doing business Elder Ro Hyuga."

 **Dun dun dun... So! I do plan on doing the time skip, but I'm going to skip around here and there. Few months here, few there.. A year here.. Ect ect... I plan on touching on their training, relationship growth and all that. Plus new enemies! Also! While I do have a plan and idea of things I want to touch on during the time skip era.. I'm open to possibly fielding some requests for chapter content! So if you got something you maybe would like to see, send me a pm about it. If it's not something I feel would fit my direction, I might just write up a quick one shot or something for the idea instead (giving you credit of course!). Anyways, as always guys/girls, thanks for reading and if you have questions send me a PM! Sky out! :) o/**


	8. Chapter 8

**Yeahhhhhh so I'm late... Just a little bit.. Holidays left me with no wifi to do an upload and then when I went to upload it on my return I accidentally deleted the entire thing trying to post it. Luckily, I sent a copy of the early drafts to my brother for some extra insight and was able to start from there instead of starting over completely. I'm so sorry about the lateness guys! I'll try to make it up to you all with a longer chapter later on this week. For now, enjoy chapter 8! :)**

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Jiraiya was starting to question the wisdom of allowing Hinata to accompany him and Naruto on this training regime. Frankly having to deal with them both at once was starting to annoy him to no end.

For all Naruto was learning about the shinobi side of himself, he felt he was growing more as a person in general than anything else. Well, as much as a thirteen year old boy can grow in a few short months. He would never forget the conversation he overhead between Naruto and Hinata about a month ago. It had been just after a week long rain storm and both of them where at a real low point.

 _Flashback_

The conversation had started poorly to say the least. Drenched from the rain and with sour moods from the wet, the cold, and being both mentally and physically exhausted from training all day had made one thing lead to another and it was actually quite a blessing things had turned out the way they had. Things had been said that needed to be said, and neither Naruto or Hinata would change the moment for anything. In hind sight... While at the time a bad day, it had turned out to be a great one...

Naruto had dragged himself back to camp to plop down against the log situated between his tent and Hinata's, to find Hinata barley aware of what was going on with her head in her hands. Typically she would greet him and Jiraiya when they would return, so not doing so now was strange. Naturally Naruto had reached out to the girl to attempt to see if something was the matter, only to be met with a very non-Hinata like response.

"Say, Hinata. Everything okay? You're quiet this evening."

Hinata had raised her head enough to glare in his direction. "I'm fine. Why do you care anyways?"

Naruto's eyes had widened and he stared blankly at the girl as what had just came out of her mouth started to register with both of them. As it sank in and the silence stretched, she had broke into tears and buried her head back into her hands sobbing.

Naruto was confused to say the least. Typically Hinata always had kind words to say to anyone. Even when she was down she would say something to lift his spirits or improve his mood rather than darken it with her own issues. This time.. He could tell something was really bothering her. And as a clueless teenage boy, specifically when it came to girls, Naruto had done the only thing that came to mind and acted on instinct. Instantly closing the short distance between them, and wrapping the girl into a hug.

"It's okay Hinata. Don't cry. I don't exactly know what's wrong, but please don't cry. I would much rather see your smile than your tears. Whatever is making you sad I'll fix, believe it."

Hinata had pushed him away and stood up. Her actions where surprising even herself but too much was going on for her to be in full control of what she was doing. She was hurt, and had no idea why. Naruto hadn't actually done anything wrong, but she found herself angry at him for some reason. Like the weather was his fault, as if he was to blame for the lack of attention he was devoting to her. And for once in her life, she wasn't going to just bottle it up. So she let it all out in a fit of pent up emotions and frustrations.

"You can't fix it!" She yelled. "You can't do anything to change this! All this stupid rain and training until we are both too tired to barley even say goodnight to each other. I just hate it Naruto! It's not fair! You asked me to come train with you, because you said you didn't want to be apart from each other after that night at the hospital. But we barely even see each other! You're off training with master Jiraiya, doing god only knows what all day and I'm left alone to practice things I learned before we even left the village. I've learned a few things here and there but it doesn't really help. All I've done is get more and more confused by what I'm doing here as the days go by."

Naruto stared in stunned silence as tears streamed down the girls face.

"I lost everything by coming with you. My home, my father, my sister, my own clan and my pride in my heritage. To become what? You treat me the same as you always have, nice and kind but am I not something more? I told you what I felt for you, and you told me that you felt the same. But I can't even tell. I don't know what this even is Naruto! What are we? I'm losing my mind doing the same things I could have done in the village. When I had so much more.

"I can't help but think about what could have been. Im thankful that I confessed to you, hearing you return my feelings meant the absolute world to me. But now, I don't even know if I really got what I wanted. I wanted you to respect me, look at me as an equal and know that you could depend on me like I depend on you. I wanted to be strong like you. So that I could protect you. But I'm not learning anything and I'm just as weak as ever while the gap between us grows larger and larger. At this rate I'll never catch up to you! How can I be with you if I can't protect you like you protect me? I'm just so hopeless! I trying hard but I can't progress if I have nothing to learn and it's driving me crazy!

But that's not even the worst part. The worst part is that every day that goes by, I can't change how I feel about you. I know that I'm in love with you. And it gets easier for me to say all the time. But I don't feel like it's that way for you. How could you love me? I'm so weak and pathetic! Look at me! Crying my eyes out because I'm frustrated over things that shouldn't be that big of a deal!"

Eventually she had stopped her tirade and just stood there in front of Naruto crying her eyes out. Seemingly oblivious to the fact that the rain had started to come down even harder than before during her rant. Naruto had listened to it all, and sat there attempting to process everything he has just heard.

He could see where she was coming from. She had literally lost everything in coming with him, just on the sudden whim that he had said that he loved her too. In truth, he shouldn't have ever said that he loved her. He was a fool, a thirteen year old fool. As oblivious as he was to romance, when the girl had given him something he had craved his entire life, the love of someone just because they wanted to love him, he has instantly latched on and didn't want it to go away.

He had been afraid to lose something that he had never had before. So the most logical thing to do was to take it with him on his trip, to ensure he didn't lose it. Yet, his lack of knowledge and experience was starting to push that very thing away from him. He truthfully had no idea what him and Hinata where. They talked about everything under the sun, and treated each other with kindness and respect. They had spent many hours of silence just walking behind Pervy Sage hand in hand. But what did that make them?

The more he thought about it, the more unsure he was. Thinking about Hinata, was something that was both easy and hard all at once. It was easy to think of her and instantly know that he wanted to be around her for a long time. But why? That was the hard part. Sure she was cute, she was kind, her smile was fantastic. But did that alone equate to him returning the way she clearly felt about him? Even to a clueless boy such as himself, it was quite apparent that she felt a great deal more than was normal for him, as her outburst had just showcased.

He was literally hurting her, by doing nothing at all. And honestly, that thought alone was enough to kill him a thousand times. And with that, Naruto knew. He knew that he truly had no clue just what he was getting into that night in the hospital when he had said the simple words, I love you too. He knew without a doubt that he was a fool, and a selfish one at that. But he also knew, that from the night to now, he never would change a moment.

Memories of the past few months flew by in his brain. Ones of soft laughter and gentle smiles. Of tasty meals and quiet companionship. Of warm hugs and soft fingers tangled with his own. And above all, the memory of the girl that gave him all of that. He didn't know really what it was he truly felt, but he know that at some point the girl in front of him had stolen a part of himself, and he would never be the same for it. Naruto was terrified by the things he felt, the things he couldn't explain, and it was eating him up inside just as bad as Hinata's doubts where eating away at her.

"Hinata... I..I'm sorry.." He stood up and hung his head. "I didn't know that all of this was causing you pain. I don't know what it's like to lose everything, as I've always had nothing. And I'm so very sorry that I haven't been here for you more. I'm.. Afraid Hinata. More afraid than I ever have been in my entire life."

She looked up at him and struggled to stop the tears. "Afraid?" She weakly whispered.

He nodded before continuing. "I'm afraid because I'm feeling things that I've never felt before. In all of my life, I've never had someone just love me, well because they loved me. No one has ever said that they loved me, and wanted to protect me and walk beside me. I've always been alone. And when you said that you did, I was so happy. It made me feel amazing to hear that one person in the entire world loved me for me. And I didn't want to lose the thing that I had just found.

"I can't say sorry enough for being so selfish. I was afraid that if I left for years and came back, you wouldn't love me anymore. So I wanted you to come with me, so that I could keep what I'd just found close by, so I wouldn't lose it. I never even stopped to think about what it could do to your life.. I'm such an idiot, and so clueless to the entire romance thing. All this time, I've been happy to have you around, and I've never really done much to show you that. I train every day to get stronger, but before, it was so that I could become Hokage and make the village respect me. Now, it's so I can protect the people that are precious to me.

"There is a lot that I still don't know. I still don't know exactly what I feel inside, and I'm not sure how to express it either. But I do know this: every day that I'm with you, is a better day than the one before because of you. When I'm out training, I push myself harder just by thinking of your smile. You're one of my precious people Hinata. Right now, the most precious of them all. I'm not good at this, I'm really lousy actually. But I'll try and be better. I'll try to show you more that I meant what I said when I said that I didn't want to be apart from you.

"And your right. It's not fair that Pervy Sage keeps going off to train me and isn't teaching you anything new. You're strong though Hinata. I've seen it in the past and I see it now. You might not think so, but I think that you are. You keep trying hard every day to get better, and that's all that matters. I'll talk to Pervy Sage for you, to make sure he takes the time to teach you some new stuff. And if he won't, well then I'll refuse to train by myself anymore and help you perfect your own awesome original jutsu on your own, believe it!"

As Hinata listened to everything Naruto was saying, something warm started to flow inside her. She wasn't quite aware of when exactly it happened, but the cold rain started to vanish from her thoughts and a warmth spread through out her entire body. Listening to him proclaim that he was sorry, that he would do better for her, and that he thought every day about her, made her want to jump for joy.

He said that he was lousy at the entire romance thing. But she had never claimed to be good at it either. She was just as bad at it as he was, and together they collectively made for a horrible mess of things. She couldn't help the giggle that escaped from her and the smile that spread across her face.

"Oh Naruto! I didn't know you felt like that. I'm the one that should be saying sorry! I didn't mean to drag you down with my problems. I may have lost a lot, but I gained something I've always wanted in you. I'm not good at this either, and I guess I just got frustrated that I was doing so horribly at it. I know I'm not nearly as strong as I should be, but thank you for saying that I am. I promise I'll keep working harder and eventually I'll walk beside you as an equal."

Naruto smiled a bit before stepping up to her and hugging her again. This time Hinata didn't push him away and instead happily returned the hug. Just getting everything off her chest, and then hearing Naruto express what he was feeling was more than enough to brighten her mood.

"Don't worry about that Hinata. As long as you're trying, I promise you will always be my equal. Because.." He paused and gulped before continuing. "You're my girlfriend Hinata. So we are always equal."

Hinata blushed and buried her face in his chest before whispering. "Thank you Naruto. It means a lot to me to hear you say that."

 _End flashback_

They had finally put an official label on just what they where too each other, and their relationship was stronger because of it. And now, it annoyed them to no end that their personal training was cutting into time that could be spent getting to know what exactly it meant to be in a relationship.

At thirteen, Naruto was starting to go through the normal changes. Growth spurts along with the hormonal changes as well. And so was Hinata. She progressively was getting frequent cases of moodiness regardless of how things where going, and Naruto was rapidly getting sidetracked more and more when around her.

The two where young, and undoubtably starting to experience major physical, emotional and mental changes. And to further complicate matters where absolutely head over heels for each other. This could really get complicated really fast as they both started to mature, and frankly it was going to be annoying. Unless...

"That's it! This is the perfect opportunity! I'm here gaining front row seats to a budding love story! This is better writing material than anything I've come across so far! I have to let this play out! This ratings will be spectacular! I'll write it all! But I need a name.. I know! I'll call it: Tale of A Gutsy Ninja- The Love Story. I'll make a fortune!"

Jirayia the legendary sannin had walked back towards the camp he left his two star pupils in with a bounce to his step, and a whistle upon his lips.

 **So like I said. This is the result of a salvage of sorts to attempt to get you all some decent reading material. I promise I'm going to make up for the shabbiness of this update with a much better one later on this week! I'm already working on it and I've saved it to THREE different places and have a hand written copy as well so as not to lose it this time. I tried to give the story some kind of direction with a bit of romance development before all the time skip age. I feel that I could of done a lot better than I did tho.. If it seems rushed that's cuz I did rush with getting this to you guys, and I'm sorry. Please review! I'd love to have more people pointing out things that I can improve on than just telling me it's a good story. As always, feel free to pm with me questions. And on a side note: I randomly did a RWBY dabble other day... Thinking about posting it as a side to this, any interest? Let me know via pm! Sky out! ;) o/**


	9. Chapter 9

**Hi all! As promised, this chapter is on time and full of epicness. I'd like to start off this chapter by giving a huge shout out and thank you to First Guy. A fair bit of content inside this chapter was inspired by ideas he put into my brain. I really appreciated the questions and the ideas poured my way, and this chapter is the result of ideas from him and myself poured together to fit the stories direction. I pray that you all enjoy the results! :)**

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Winter was cold and dreary. But warm all at the same time. Naruto and Hinata found themselves growing and learning together about a lot of things. About themselves individually, and just what they where to each other. The weather was cold, and it had been a pleasant find to discover that they both enjoyed leaning into each other and sharing warmth late at night before they retired to their separate tents.

Strangely enough, Jiraiya had altered their training schedules so to speak. Instead of training every single day, he gave them half a day on Saturdays and a full day on Sunday's all to themselves to do whatever they wished. He would then vanish in the name of "research" leaving the two teens alone. Which they happily spent together.

It wasn't long before a routine was established. Saturday afternoon they would train together. Working on teamwork and combo moves while trying to help each other with personal goals if at all possible. Sunday, was officially "date" day. If it's at all possible for two teenage kids to go on a date in the middle of nowhere at least.

These "dates" mostly just consisted of sitting around the camp relaxing and talking to each other about everything possible. It was a great chance to learn more about each other, their hopes and dreams, thoughts about different subjects and pretty much anything that came to mind. Once in a great while, they would find themselves close to a village during traveling, and would instead spend the day together in the village. Seeing a movie, eating where ever they pleased. Just enjoying the companionship and joy of being together.

But winter hadn't lasted forever, spring had come before long. As the weather warmed, the two had started to spend a bit of their Sunday's training as well. Naruto was on the verge of a break through with his Rasengan and Hinata was trying to help him with it. Naruto would have happily returned the favor to help her with her personal goal but.. Frankly he wasn't smart enough to grasp what she was doing.

While Naruto's training was quite simple: learning to detect and dispel genjutsu, work on taijutsu, work on chakra control, and work on improving usage of both the Rasengan and shadow clone jutsu. Hinata's was way more complex.

True to his word months and months ago, Naruto had ambushed Jiraiya and demanded that he take time to teach Hinata as well. While immediately not having an answer for just what the girl could learn, an idea had taken root and he had seized the chance it presented. Not only did it shut Naruto up because Hinata was in fact learning something new, but it required zero effort on his part! It was brilliant to say the least. All he had to do was send a toad every so often back to the village to get more scrolls.

Yup. That was the super awesome training for Hinata courtesy of Jiraiya the legendary sannin. Send a toad to the village, get a bunch of medical and genjutsu scrolls prepared by Tsunade and Kurunai and toss them to the girl and tell her to have a blast. In truth the women where saving his ass. When he contacted them about the issue they had quickly agreed to do what they could to help the girl, knowing that Jiraiya was next to no hope on those subjects.

They prepared detailed and step by step instructions that where perfectly tailored to the abilities known to the two women upon Hinata leaving the village. The scrolls perfectly outlined the basics, and as new scrolls came, started to build on those. It was slow going, and a lot of trial and error, but Hinata was making remarkable progress. Thankfully she was an outstanding book learner.

She could read the scrolls and quickly grasp their meanings and start to apply the teachings without too much effort. The end results however... Was another story. Without being able to actually see what the result was suppose to look like, Hinata was left with hoping that the result was what it was suppose to be. Thankfully again, both medical and genjutsu where things that she could at least display to Naruto and Jiraiya and know that the effects where somewhat correct.

If she was healing a wound, it was pretty easy to tell if she was successful or not. Major sign of success: wound was healed. Major sign of failure: Naruto, Jiraiya or herself just kept bleeding. And if she was practicing her genjutsu, Naruto or Jiraiya's comments about how things where distorting the way she desired told her she was successful. Or if they started walking off trying to follow her when she was standing there doing nothing. Actually this was a favorite of hers currently. Not to Naruto, but to Jiraiya.

Naruto's prank habits where starting to rub off on her a bit, and thanks to her rapidly increasing abilities in genjutsu, she was having fun with her poor master. She refused to tell Naruto what exactly she made Jiraiya see when he would suddenly bolt off with a dazed look on his face only to have him return a few minutes later and glare at her. And Jiraiya refused to relate the info as well. But you couldn't blame him. While it was too embarrassing for Hinata to admit to what she was doing, it was more embarrassing for him to admit that she was consistently getting him with the same trick.

Despite not having a physical teacher for the new disciplines, Hinata was very pleased with the results. She could heal ever increasing in severity wounds, and was able to use genjutsu while using her Bakyugan and the gentle fist style she learned as a Hyuga. Every time she used the style of her old clan, she got a sour taste in her mouth. But she couldn't pass up the fact that she had trained in it for years, it's practical applications suited her perfectly as an ex-Hyuga, and she honestly was good at it. She was quickly learning to combine her new skills with it however, and making it something completely different than intended.

Not to mention, the Bakyugan was helping further her abilities in genjutsu and medical jutsu by significant amounts. The Bakyugan allowed for her to gain an instantaneous picture of an opponents chakra system, which she could then use to pinpoint weak points for not only the gentle fist, but her genjutsu as well. In her spars with Naruto, she had learned that she could utilize genjutsu to throw him off for a moment or two in order to allow her to close the distance or provide a breather for her to regain lost ground. While this was allowing her to last progressively longer and longer in their spars, she was still behind him in terms of over all ability. He possessed far too much chakra for her genjutsu to be totally effective, and his shadow clones made up for his lower aptitude for taijutsu. But the experience was beyond helpful.

Jiraiya would constantly tell her that using Naruto as a base for her genjutsu tactics could only help her against future opponents. Since Naruto had gained knowledge of genjutsu, and was getting pretty darn good at dispelling it, and possessed a near unlimited supply of chakra, if she was capable of using her skills on him, even if for a moment, they would be much more effective against normal opponents that lacked his knowledge and chakra reserves. Of course, she was no Kurunai. Anyone with more chakra than she had, could dispel any genjutsu she created, and since she did not have a remarkable reserve of chakra, she was limited in just what she could accomplish.

Being smart, Hinata was aware of these limitations. She couldn't use genjutsu to completely incapacitate an opponent, but she could use it to briefly create openings and distractions. And this is what she worked on, and thanks to the medical training she was doing, she was learning how to make the most of something small. It was amazing how many small things in the human body could effect things on a drastic scale.

For example, it was quite easy to mess with someone's sense of balance using genjutsu. And when a person lost their sense of balance completely, it affected other aspects of their body. Their vision would falter, their reactions would slow down, it would effect their sense of depth perception and not to mention the world started to spin. And thanks to her training, she was learning just where to target to cause these discomforts. Admittedly, she wasn't yet good at doing it, but she was gaining a basic understanding of attacking the senses both with her genjutsu and with her gentle fist technique.

From a medical jutsu standpoint, she progressively learned more and more about the body, just what it was capable of and its limitations. As she gained a deeper and deeper understanding of what it took to heal certain wounds, an idea had started to form in her brain. Taking from the protective nature of her self created version of the Hyuga clans 64 palms technique, she started to use her abnormally high level of chakra control to heal on the fly.

This translated to roughing the equivalent of healing wounds on her personage just by focusing chakra at the point of the wound. Thanks to her level of control being so precise, she never expended too much chakra healing herself. Coupled with the fact that her chakra reserves where in fact getting larger as time progressed and all the years of training with the smaller pool, it was almost instinctive. It hadn't taken her long at all to get to a point where she could be sparing with Naruto in a taijutsu situation and heal small wounds to herself while defending and counter attacking.

This level of progress was something that Jiraiya praised openly. Hinata was quickly following a path that Tsunade herself had traveled down in being able to heal herself in the midst of combat. It did have its drawbacks however. Despite the ever increasing chakra stores, Hinata still did not have a particularly large pool of chakra like Tsunade. So as time went on, the more healing she did, the quicker she burned out. The amount of time she could sustain a adequate level of healing and still have chakra for defending against new wounds, not to mention attacking, was somewhat low.

She was making great progress, but something was lacking in her knowledge. Hinata felt that she was on the verge of a breakthrough in her training to combine her techniques, but something was eluding her in the puzzle. She had come so far. Ah but she could come so much farther if only she had a proper teacher rather than nothing but scrolls!

And as spring started to slowly pass by and the days gradually warmed up with summer just around the bend, this fact was not lost on Jiraiya. He could plainly see her growth and see her frustrations at not being able to ask someone more knowledgeable on the subjects she craved to learn more about. But he didn't have many options as far as helping her went.

They couldn't return to the village for her to ask Tsunade and Kurunai directly, and no other village would possibly share their teachers with outsiders. Unless... Well he did have two options. He had old friends he could call upon. Considering they had no village affiliation at all they wouldn't really be a risk to go visit. Of course, he had no idea where to find one of them, and the one he did know where to find he would prefer to keep Naruto as far away from as physically possible.

Of course, they weren't exactly all that far away from this particular friend as it was. The thought of them corrupting Naruto further was a very real possibility however. Not to mention, his pranks had rubbed off onto Hinata already, so someone else that shared those tendencies getting lots of one on one time with the girl that was already starting to drive him insane with the content of her pranks, didn't seem like a great idea.

It would provide time where he could take Naruto far away though. Even if it was just for a week or so, he really needed the one on one time with Naruto to see how much control over the Nine Tails he could manage. And this was getting harder and harder to keep hidden from Hinata. Naruto still hadn't told her and Jiraiya had no desire to spill the boys secret. If he elected to inform her, he would. Otherwise he would keep his promise to the Third and keep it hidden as best he could.

So that pretty much settled it. He needed time to teach Naruto properly without giving away the Nine Tails secret, and Hinata needed a proper teacher for medical jutsu. He was going to have to pay a visit to his friend, and he was most likely not going to like the results on the developing personalities of his students. But if it would help them to actually live longer in the rapidly deteriorating world, he could handle a few more pranks. Couldn't he?

Only one way to find out. Oh yeah... This was going to suck for Jiraiya, he had no doubts about that. Not to mention, with the timing in the week, he was going to have to push them to travel longer on days they where used to having to themselves. So he was going to create two moody teenagers prior to the reunion with his old friend, just wonderful.

They had to learn though. And this was the best way to do so. Plus, perhaps his friend could give him some info on the whereabouts of their other acquaintance. If so then that was information that he couldn't pass up on obtaining. He needed to know just what they where doing anyways. For more than just his own sake. The next few days might suck, but things where bound to get better soon.

His students where rapidly growing and he couldn't be more proud. Now was the time to take their training to the next level, and over the last few months, the ceiling for his female pupil had risen dramatically; and Jiraiya wanted to see just how high it could actually reach.

 **Well guys! This was chapter 9. Again, thanks to First Guy for a lot of the inspiration for this one! Hope you all enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it. Please review!**

 **Lately I'm finding myself with a lot of free time to write so I've been writing other things as well. I'm thinking of starting up a page or something to take commissions to try my hand at other subjects.. Will let everyone know if I do! I'm also working (slowly but I'm doing it) my own personal novel with my own characters and what not. Also.. Anime to enjoy! :D**

 **I also changed the rating on this fix to "M" to allow myself a little more freedom in creativity. It won't get to bad so don't worry about that, but I felt it's better to be safe than sorry! :)**

 **Take care guys, till next week! Sky out o/ :)**


	10. Chapter 10

**Well I'm back with chapter 10 guys and girls! Whooohoooo the 10th installment of this story! That means (due to me giving 4 chapters in two weeks to start) this marks the 8th week of this story. Two whole months! It's been a blast writing and the amount of views/reviews/follows/favorites has been outstanding! I'm so glad to have made it this far with this already, and I'm really looking forward to keeping this going for a long time. So without further ado, chapter 10 for your reading pleasure! :)**

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It had started to rain Friday evening. About an hour after Jiraiya had informed his students that they would be traveling all weekend instead of stopping to make camp. They had instantly expressed a desire to camp and have their day and a half to themselves like normal, but he had insisted it was important for their training. And they had glared daggers and mumbled under their breath. And then, the sky opened up and poured down on them all. And the mumbling turned into curses, and Jiraiya knew he was screwed.

So the next day he had done the sensible thing and called a halt to set up a camp for the night earlier than was normal. This had done somewhat of a decent job of appeasing the two, but he still felt it was best to retire early and leave them alone. So after bidding them good night, Jirayia had left Naruto and Hinata alone.

Left alone they had instantly sat together under a tarp and started discussing the abnormal change in events.

"Stupid Pervy Sage! Where does he get off on telling us that we got to travel all weekend to a designation that he won't even tell us about! It's probably just some village so he can do more research." Naruto grumbled.

Hinata let out a sigh and pushed her wet bangs out of her eyes. "You're most likely right. I can't think of any other reason. Master Jiraiya has always been open with us about where we are going."

"Exactly! He is just being a huge pervert again. And then we will have to save him from a beating once he gets caught perving on whoever it is."

Hinata giggled at the memories. "That's most likely true. It is a bit annoying to have to go get him in those situations."

"I'll say! If Pervy Sage wasn't just a huge pervert then our lives would be a fair bit easier."

The two teens slipped into silence for a moment before Naruto spoke up again.

"Say, Hinata? How's your combination jutsu coming along? We haven't had time to train together since we been traveling so much past two days."

"It's okay I suppose." The girl let out a long sigh. "I feel like I'm getting really really close but I can't just seem to make everything work the way I want it too. I just don't have enough chakra to maintain the jutsu long enough for it to make a difference."

"I wish I could help, but I don't really understand what you're trying to accomplish exactly." Naruto scratched back of his head. "The only thing that I could think of, is if you somehow could limit the amount of chakra it used. Like how you helped me to learn that I didn't have to use so much for my shadow clones, maybe your jutsu could use less chakra?"

Hinata shook her head. "I wish that was the case, and I already tried to do that. Either I'm not good enough at utilizing the gentjutsu, or what I'm trying to accomplish just takes up a lot of chakra. I've tried to lessen the amount, but then the effect doesn't happen at all."

"Hmm... Well short of getting more chakra there doesn't seem to be all that much of an answer."

"Sadly right now no.. I do think that the amount used could be limited, but I don't know enough about how genjutsu works to be able to do it right now. Maybe in time I'll have a high enough understanding, but right now I don't. I'll keep working at it though, eventually I'm bound to make the connection I need. But how's that new technique that Master Jiraiya has you working on coming?"

"The one with the replacement jutsu?" Hinata nodded. "Eh.. I don't understand just what he is asking me to do... He keeps trying to make me use it without exchanging myself with anything, which is impossible of course. Can't replace something with nothing.. So I just end up standing around for a few hours burning chakra."

"That doesn't sound very fair.. He at least tell you what it's suppose to accomplish in the end?"

"Nope. Not a word. Just keeps saying to keep trying and eventually it will click on what I'm actually suppose to be doing. It's almost like he is having me do this as a joke."

"Maybe so.. It could be serving the purpose of making you learn patience or determination? Truthfully I think he is just messing with you though Naruto."

Naruto flopped onto his back and stared up at the tarp with a glum expression. "If all I'm doing is wasting time I could be using to master the Rasengan or a new jutsu I'm going to lose it."

"I don't blame you there.. Maybe it will reveal the purpose to you soon. Just keep working and I know you will be fine Naruto." Hinata leaned closer to him and laid her hand on his shoulder.

Naruto smiled and sat up and gave her a hug. "Haha thanks Hinata. I'll figure it out in the end, believe it! But right now, with this stupid rain, I think I'm going to try and get some sleep while I can. Pervy Sage is probably going to make us walk all day tomorrow as well so might as well get some rest. Good night Hinata, sweet dreams."

She blushed a bit and returned the hug. "Sweet dreams Naruto, see you in the morning."

As he started to get up and move away, Hinata leaned in at the last second and quickly kissed his cheek. It wasn't the first time she had done so, but the effect was the same as the previous ones. Both herself and Naruto would turn bright red and hurry into their own tents muttering and avoiding eye contact. It was a relatively awkward way to end an evening, but it also helped both to sleep through the night.

Thankfully by morning the rain had stopped so that when they resumed their travels they didn't have to do so while soaking wet. Jiraiya still refused to relate exactly where they where headed, although he had at least elaborated to the point of telling them that it was a surprise and both would enjoy it. So they spent the better half of the morning in relative silence following Jiraiya as he pressed onward.

Both Naruto and Hinata where starting to doubt their earlier assumptions on the designation. Rolling hills and plains had given way to lush forests and tangled undergrowth. They where now traveling directly through one of these overgrown forests with no clear path to follow, yet ever onward they pressed.

It was starting to look like they where being lead to absolutely nowhere at all before the trees started to thin and the sound of cascading water could be heard. Ears perking up at the new sound they pressed on until the trees fell back to reveal a clearing situated by a small waterfall. A stream flowed from the base for a ways before it ended in a small lake, easily traversable in a matter of minutes. Tucked up near the waterfall was a decent sized house, absolutely out of place with smoke spiraling from the chimney.

"Aha! We're here! And by the look and smell of things, just in time for lunch!" Jiraiya clapped his hands together happily.

Naruto and Hinata looked around taking in the view.

"Um.. Master Jiraiya? Where are we exactly?" Hinata inched closer to Naruto as a strange feeling started to come over her.

Naruto narrowed his eyes and started glancing around with a bit more caution as Jiraiya started walking towards the house without a care in the world.

"At the home of my good frien... Argh! Let me go you foul demon!"

Both teens dropped into ready stances as a figure suddenly appeared from out of nowhere and tackled Jiraiya.

"Jiraiya is that you!? Oh come here you fuzzy bear you!" A strikingly female voice cried out.

"I'm not a bear! Let me go at once! I seem to recall telling you to stop grabbing ahold of me!"

"Oh don't be such a sour puss Jiraiya! I havnt seen you in nearly a year and this is how you repay me!?"

Naruto and Hinata watched in stunned silence as the events in front of them unfolded. It was quite the sight to see a woman hugging Jiraiya as tight as physically possible, and Jiraiya doing everything in his power to get away. And considering she was beautiful to both the teens eyes, it was just that much more of a strange sight.

The woman had long brown hair, that flowed perfectly straight to about waist length, tan skin and bright green eyes. She had a rather well endowed chest and possessed a shapely and toned build from years of ninja training. Honestly she was the exact type of woman that Jiraiya loved to 'research' but seemingly was oblivious to all of that.

The pair continued to watch as Jiraiya and the new woman continued to bicker back and forth while the latter attempted to escape from the formers grasp. After a few minutes of this Jiraiya finally managed to escape and then insanely darted behind Naruto and Hinata to hide. Upon seeing the two, the woman instantly broke into a huge grin.

"Oh!? What do we have here!? A beautiful young girl and a handsome young man. Standing mighty close aren't we? Oh! You MUST be an item! Yes it's plainly written on your faces, you're obviously in love with each other!"

They instantly turned bright red and started to stammer at the same time and attempted to move apart only to forget to drop each other's hands they had subconsciously grabbed and end up sprawled on the ground in a tangle of arms and legs.

The woman squealed in delight. "Oh my god! You're both so adorable! You don't even know how to act with each other fully yet! Oh I must teach you how to be a proper couple! Jiraiya please please please let me teach them all about love! I'll never hug you again if u can, promiseeeee!"

She jumped on top of them with a hug to hold them as close together as possible while looking at Jiraiya with puppy dog eyes. He smiled awkwardly and scratched the back of his head.

"Well if you insist.. I think we might can work something out as far as that goes."

"Oh really! Is this why you're here? To bring me a young and inexperienced couple!? Oh Jiraiya, you really shouldn't have! This is the absolute best present ever!"

Looking straight at Naruto and Hinata she beamed. "So tell me my new pupils. Have you had sex yet? If not that's okay! I can teach you all about it!"

The teens stared blankly while rapidly turning redder and redder by the passing second before their eyes rolled back into their heads and unconsciousness claimed them.

"Oh dear, was it something I said?"

Jiraiya burst into laughter and collapsed on the ground with tears in his eyes. "Oh hahaha! That was. Hahahaha! Way better than I had hoped! Hahaha! Did you see their faces! Hahaha!"

Releasing her hold on the young ninja she got up. "Oh give me a break, that's what you really wanted isn't it?"

Wiping his eyes Jiraiya rose to his feet. "Not the only reason but it was totally worth bringing them here just to have seen their faces. I mostly wanted to talk to you about the girl, Hinata though."

"Oh? What about her?"

"Well she has medical abilities. And outside of Tsunade, you're one of the best in the world. I need some time to train Naruto one on one, and she needs to learn. I was hoping that you would teach her for me. Call it a favor."

She grinned. "Jiraiya the legendary sannin owing little old me a favor? Now that's something I can get behind. Besides.. I sense her potential. And I know just how awful you are with medical jutsu. Be a shame to let her talent go to waste."

Jiraiya groaned. "Look whatever you do, just try not to corrupt her too much? She's a bit innocent as you can tell, and her and Naruto are just starting to discover their relationship. I'd highly prefer you not corrupt them into taking it too far too quickly."

She patted his arm. "Relax. I won't corrupt her... Much." She added the last part under her breath.

"Well that's good then. Either way, it's good to see you again Mira. It had been far too long."

"Likewise Jiraiya. It's always nice to see you, even if you always chased after Tsunade despite my own considerable, and willing, talents." She took a few steps closer to him.

He backed away. "Whoa whoa whoa! I've told you a thousand times already! I'm just not into you like that! Let's keep this relationship professional okay?"

Mira frowned. "Well now I'm all sad! Whatever shall I do?.. Oh I know! I'll just teach these two young ones all about the birds and the bees, Mira style!"

Jiraiya gasped in shock. "You wouldn't!?"

She grinned evilly. "We both know that I would."

He groaned. "Fine... How's this. You don't corrupt either of them, and I'll go on one date with you."

Mira started to jump up and down happily. "Oh Jiraiya I though you would never ask! I'd LOVE to go on a date with you!"

Jiraiya smiled sheepishly and scratched the back of his head. It was starting to look like bringing Naruto and Hinata to see Mira was a horrible idea. It was far too late now though, only time would tell if he would survive this without ruining the two impressionable teens lives.

 **Chapter 10 everyone! *takes a bow* I do hope you all enjoyed it! I'm open to questions and comments, and if you desire something, just send me a pm guys! I'm more than happy to talk or even entertain the idea of other writings/stories.**

 **Again.. Thank you so so so much to everyone who has been here for awhile.. Rose Tiger, First Guy, just an observer1, darkfox2357 and Wolvmbm. I know there are more of you but that's all I remember at the moment I'm sorry! Thanks from the bottom of heart for allowing this to last till chapter 10 with great success.**

 **I'm going to make every Friday my official update day so look forward to it!**

 **Sky out! :) o/**


	11. Chapter 11

Hi everyone!

I know it's been quite awhile and needless to say an update on this fic is long past due.. unfortunately life got really hectic and busy for me for awhile and just couldn't find the time to devote to this instead of my personal novel.

I know that kinda sucks.. and it's a lamreally excuse but it's the truth.

Also I am kinda at a point where the inspiration for this story has gone out the window and have found it increasingly difficult to add to it. It's kinda hard to add to a story when I no longer have an interest in the topic. Since Naruto the manga is finished and I'm not watching the anime. As such I'm sadly going to mark this story as complete (even though it clearly isnt). At some point when inspiration comes back to me I might pick it back up, but for right now I'm calling it done.

I'm sorry to everyone that stuck around for awhile on this waiting for more.. I do feel pretty bad but I think it's best to move on from this. I'd rather give nothing than update something with super low quality.

I will be uploading other stories still! But currently my focus will be on other anime. Right now I'm caught up on RWBY and most likely will post a few stories on that. I made a Facebook page everyone is more than welcome to follow! I'm also taking requests for anything I have listed that I watch as a topic. If your unsure just message me and I'll send you a list of things I'm comfortable writing about. To find the Facebook page just search "Skyler Sylin Author" and I'm sure it will pop up.

As always.. thanks for everything and for reading.

Sky out o/


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